diff --git a/CHANGELOG b/CHANGELOG
index 1cb338f16da47f3b4f40166638e1d4dea1b0b9b8..b0540151fceea8e68371da1d797112a69ce28538 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG
+++ b/CHANGELOG
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 Please view this file on the master branch, on stable branches it's out of date.
 
 v 8.0.1
+  - Remove git refs used internally by GitLab from network graph (Stan Hu)
   - Improve CI migration procedure and documentation
 
 v 8.0.0
diff --git a/app/helpers/graph_helper.rb b/app/helpers/graph_helper.rb
index e1dda20de858708c6da9be66f40dce1149653bd0..1e372d5631d78377ecfda7cab4d9b5b16ca42765 100644
--- a/app/helpers/graph_helper.rb
+++ b/app/helpers/graph_helper.rb
@@ -1,7 +1,10 @@
 module GraphHelper
   def get_refs(repo, commit)
     refs = ""
-    refs << commit.ref_names(repo).join(' ')
+    # Commit::ref_names already strips the refs/XXX from important refs (e.g. refs/heads/XXX)
+    # so anything leftover is internally used by GitLab
+    commit_refs = commit.ref_names(repo).reject{ |name| name.starts_with?('refs/') }
+    refs << commit_refs.join(' ')
 
     # append note count
     refs << "[#{@graph.notes[commit.id]}]" if @graph.notes[commit.id] > 0
diff --git a/spec/helpers/graph_helper_spec.rb b/spec/helpers/graph_helper_spec.rb
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..4acf38771b7ab8b799c003efc27778aac7f17221
--- /dev/null
+++ b/spec/helpers/graph_helper_spec.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+require 'spec_helper'
+
+describe GraphHelper do
+  describe '#get_refs' do
+    let(:project) { create(:project) }
+    let(:commit)  { project.commit("master") }
+    let(:graph) { Network::Graph.new(project, 'master', commit, '') }
+
+    it 'filter our refs used by GitLab' do
+      allow(commit).to receive(:ref_names).and_return(['refs/merge-requests/abc', 'master', 'refs/tmp/xyz'])
+      self.instance_variable_set(:@graph, graph)
+      refs = get_refs(project.repository, commit)
+      expect(refs).to eq('master')
+    end
+  end
+end