diff --git a/src/js/_enqueues/wp/emoji.js b/src/js/_enqueues/wp/emoji.js
index a1f0f4face234..9ec1a788a95b0 100644
--- a/src/js/_enqueues/wp/emoji.js
+++ b/src/js/_enqueues/wp/emoji.js
@@ -110,7 +110,9 @@
 						// Emoji in a text node are replaced by parsing the element which contains it.
 						const node = addedNode instanceof Text ? addedNode.parentElement : addedNode;
 
-						if ( node instanceof HTMLElement && test( node.textContent ) ) {
+						if (
+							node instanceof HTMLElement && test( node.textContent ) && ! isExcludedFromParsing( node )
+						) {
 							parse( node );
 						}
 					}
@@ -123,6 +125,39 @@
 			parse( document.body );
 		}
 
+		/**
+		 * Checks whether a node, or one of its ancestors, is excluded from
+		 * emoji parsing.
+		 *
+		 * The doNotParse() callback passed to Twemoji only excludes descendants
+		 * of the node it's asked to parse, so a node that is itself excluded
+		 * (or nested inside an excluded ancestor) has to be checked here,
+		 * before it's ever handed to parse().
+		 *
+		 * @since 7.2.0
+		 * @private
+		 *
+		 * @param {HTMLElement|null} node The node to check.
+		 *
+		 * @return {boolean} Whether the node or an ancestor has the
+		 *                    wp-exclude-emoji class.
+		 */
+		function isExcludedFromParsing( node ) {
+			while ( node ) {
+				if (
+					node.className &&
+					typeof node.className === 'string' &&
+					node.className.indexOf( 'wp-exclude-emoji' ) !== -1
+				) {
+					return true;
+				}
+
+				node = node.parentElement;
+			}
+
+			return false;
+		}
+
 		/**
 		 * Tests if a text string contains emoji characters.
 		 *
diff --git a/tests/qunit/wp-includes/js/emoji.html b/tests/qunit/wp-includes/js/emoji.html
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..049a6468c2f5a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/qunit/wp-includes/js/emoji.html
@@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
+<!DOCTYPE html>
+<html>
+	<head>
+		<title>wp.emoji QUnit Test Suite</title>
+		<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />
+
+		<!-- QUnit -->
+		<link rel="stylesheet" href="../../../../node_modules/qunit/qunit/qunit.css" type="text/css" media="screen" />
+		<script src="../../../../node_modules/qunit/qunit/qunit.js"></script>
+	</head>
+	<body>
+		<div id="qunit"></div>
+		<div id="qunit-fixture"></div>
+
+		<script src="../../../../build/wp-includes/js/twemoji.js"></script>
+		<script>
+			window._wpemojiSettings = {
+				baseUrl: 'https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/17.0.2/72x72/',
+				ext: '.png',
+				svgUrl: 'https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/17.0.2/svg/',
+				svgExt: '.svg',
+				supports: {
+					everything: false,
+					everythingExceptFlag: false
+				}
+			};
+		</script>
+		<script src="../../../../build/wp-includes/js/wp-emoji.js"></script>
+		<script src="emoji.js"></script>
+	</body>
+</html>
diff --git a/tests/qunit/wp-includes/js/emoji.js b/tests/qunit/wp-includes/js/emoji.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..597071079ee8c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/qunit/wp-includes/js/emoji.js
@@ -0,0 +1,52 @@
+( function( QUnit ) {
+	var FLAG = '🇰🇷'; // Flag: South Korea.
+
+	QUnit.module( 'wp.emoji' );
+
+	function assertNotParsed( assert, container, done ) {
+		window.setTimeout( function() {
+			assert.strictEqual( container.querySelector( 'img.emoji' ), null, 'the excluded element should not contain an emoji image' );
+			container.remove();
+			done();
+		}, 50 );
+	}
+
+	QUnit.test( 'does not parse an excluded element appended whole after load', function( assert ) {
+		var done = assert.async(),
+			span = document.createElement( 'span' );
+
+		span.className = 'wp-exclude-emoji';
+		span.textContent = FLAG;
+		document.body.appendChild( span );
+
+		assertNotParsed( assert, span, done );
+	} );
+
+	QUnit.test( 'does not parse an excluded element whose text is replaced after load', function( assert ) {
+		var done = assert.async(),
+			span = document.createElement( 'span' );
+
+		span.className = 'wp-exclude-emoji';
+		document.body.appendChild( span );
+
+		window.setTimeout( function() {
+			span.textContent = FLAG;
+			assertNotParsed( assert, span, done );
+		}, 50 );
+	} );
+
+	QUnit.test( 'does not parse text appended inside an already-excluded ancestor', function( assert ) {
+		var done = assert.async(),
+			wrapper = document.createElement( 'span' ),
+			child = document.createElement( 'em' );
+
+		wrapper.className = 'wp-exclude-emoji';
+		wrapper.appendChild( child );
+		document.body.appendChild( wrapper );
+
+		window.setTimeout( function() {
+			child.textContent = FLAG;
+			assertNotParsed( assert, wrapper, done );
+		}, 50 );
+	} );
+} )( window.QUnit );