wp_localize_script() shouldn't convert character entities

[johnbillion]

If you pass a string to wp_localize_script() which contains special HTML characters such as "&" they'll get converted to their entities, resulting in JavaScript strings that contain entities when they shouldn't. Looks like the entity conversion in esc_js() is the culprit.

Example:

wp_localize_script(
	'myscript',
	'something',
	array(
		'message'  => __( 'This & that', 'something' )
	)
);

If you then do this:

alert( something.message );

the alert modal will show:

This & that

[scribu]

I believe this was just fixed in [18464].

Marking as dup of #11520.

Please open a new ticket if there are other instances where esc_js() is causing problems like this.