diff --git a/etc/NEWS b/etc/NEWS
index 46762d65e18..76e6316ca2e 100644
--- a/etc/NEWS
+++ b/etc/NEWS
@@ -1377,11 +1377,6 @@ second argument instead of its first.
 renamed to 'lread--old-style-backquotes'.  No user code should use
 this variable.
 
----
-** To avoid confusion caused by "smart quotes", the reader no longer
-accepts Lisp symbols which begin with the following quotation
-characters: ‘’‛“”‟〞＂＇, unless they are escaped with backslash.
-
 +++
 ** 'default-file-name-coding-system' now defaults to a coding system
 that does not process CRLF.  For example, it defaults to 'utf-8-unix'
diff --git a/src/lread.c b/src/lread.c
index 45d60647bee..3104c441ecf 100644
--- a/src/lread.c
+++ b/src/lread.c
@@ -3479,24 +3479,6 @@ read1 (Lisp_Object readcharfun, int *pch, bool first_in_list)
 	    if (! NILP (result))
 	      return unbind_to (count, result);
 	  }
-        if (!quoted && multibyte)
-          {
-            int ch = STRING_CHAR ((unsigned char *) read_buffer);
-            switch (ch)
-              {
-              case 0x2018: /* LEFT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK */
-              case 0x2019: /* RIGHT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK */
-              case 0x201B: /* SINGLE HIGH-REVERSED-9 QUOTATION MARK */
-              case 0x201C: /* LEFT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK */
-              case 0x201D: /* RIGHT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK */
-              case 0x201F: /* DOUBLE HIGH-REVERSED-9 QUOTATION MARK */
-              case 0x301E: /* DOUBLE PRIME QUOTATION MARK */
-              case 0xFF02: /* FULLWIDTH QUOTATION MARK */
-              case 0xFF07: /* FULLWIDTH APOSTROPHE */
-                xsignal2 (Qinvalid_read_syntax, build_string ("strange quote"),
-                          CALLN (Fstring, make_number (ch)));
-              }
-          }
 	{
 	  Lisp_Object result;
 	  ptrdiff_t nbytes = p - read_buffer;
diff --git a/test/src/lread-tests.el b/test/src/lread-tests.el
index 4fec9286e45..5c3fea7e680 100644
--- a/test/src/lread-tests.el
+++ b/test/src/lread-tests.el
@@ -142,23 +142,6 @@ literals (Bug#20852)."
                            "unescaped character literals "
                            "`?\"', `?(', `?)', `?;', `?[', `?]' detected!")))))
 
-(ert-deftest lread-tests--funny-quote-symbols ()
-  "Check that 'smart quotes' or similar trigger errors in symbol names."
-  (dolist (quote-char
-           '(#x2018 ;; LEFT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK
-             #x2019 ;; RIGHT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK
-             #x201B ;; SINGLE HIGH-REVERSED-9 QUOTATION MARK
-             #x201C ;; LEFT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK
-             #x201D ;; RIGHT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK
-             #x201F ;; DOUBLE HIGH-REVERSED-9 QUOTATION MARK
-             #x301E ;; DOUBLE PRIME QUOTATION MARK
-             #xFF02 ;; FULLWIDTH QUOTATION MARK
-             #xFF07 ;; FULLWIDTH APOSTROPHE
-             ))
-    (let ((str (format "%cfoo" quote-char)))
-     (should-error (read str) :type 'invalid-read-syntax)
-     (should (eq (read (concat "\\" str)) (intern str))))))
-
 (ert-deftest lread-test-bug26837 ()
   "Test for https://debbugs.gnu.org/26837 ."
   (let ((load-path (cons