This HTML Export Block will also get exported for Hugo exports, verbatim. And Markdown emphasis characters like *, ` and _ will not escaped in here. From ox-hugo Issue #154, we see an actual case of where that * will need to remain unescaped: # Org source #+begin_export html <div> <script type="text/javascript"> var a = 3; var b = 2*a; </script> </div> #+end_export #+begin_export html blocks with script tag # ox-hugo Issue #369