diff --git a/src/HtmlUtils.js b/src/HtmlUtils.js
index 447de08867..3cad98198a 100644
--- a/src/HtmlUtils.js
+++ b/src/HtmlUtils.js
@@ -92,11 +92,12 @@ var sanitizeHtmlParams = {
         // deliberately no h1/h2 to stop people shouting.
         'h3', 'h4', 'h5', 'h6', 'blockquote', 'p', 'a', 'ul', 'ol',
         'nl', 'li', 'b', 'i', 'u', 'strong', 'em', 'strike', 'code', 'hr', 'br', 'div',
-        'table', 'thead', 'caption', 'tbody', 'tr', 'th', 'td', 'pre'
+        'table', 'thead', 'caption', 'tbody', 'tr', 'th', 'td', 'pre', 'span',
     ],
     allowedAttributes: {
         // custom ones first:
         font: ['color', 'style'], // custom to matrix
+        span: ['style'],
         a: ['href', 'name', 'target', 'rel'], // remote target: custom to matrix
         // We don't currently allow img itself by default, but this
         // would make sense if we did