diff --git a/libforget/img_proxy.py b/libforget/img_proxy.py
index 3d1c582..b34a11b 100644
--- a/libforget/img_proxy.py
+++ b/libforget/img_proxy.py
@@ -45,7 +45,7 @@ class ImgProxyCache(object):
         return base64.urlsafe_b64encode(
                 '{}:{}'.format(url_hmac.hexdigest(), url)
                 .encode('UTF-8')
-                ).strip(b'=')
+                ).strip(b'=').decode('UTF-8')
 
     def url_for(self, identifier):
         try: