diff --git a/roles/git/hooks/files/post-receive-fedora-messaging b/roles/git/hooks/files/post-receive-fedora-messaging
index 1ee79e5051..060b06764e 100644
--- a/roles/git/hooks/files/post-receive-fedora-messaging
+++ b/roles/git/hooks/files/post-receive-fedora-messaging
@@ -51,7 +51,7 @@ def revs_between(head, base):
     if proc.returncode != 0:
         raise IOError('git rev-list failed: %r, err: %r' % (stdout, stderr))
 
-    for line in stdout.decode('utf-8').strip().split('\n'):
+    for line in stdout.strip().split('\n'):
         yield line.strip()