diff --git a/hgext/phabricator.py b/hgext/phabricator.py
index e360acfaf210625e552cd3b4a14c169947898a3c_aGdleHQvcGhhYnJpY2F0b3IucHk=..0f90c2d2d7e86e5af8906bf8a160b3d5c7bd9ee4_aGdleHQvcGhhYnJpY2F0b3IucHk= 100644
--- a/hgext/phabricator.py
+++ b/hgext/phabricator.py
@@ -251,7 +251,8 @@
     parsed = pycompat.rapply(
         lambda x: encoding.unitolocal(x) if isinstance(x, pycompat.unicode)
         else x,
-        json.loads(body)
+        # json.loads only accepts bytes from py3.6+
+        json.loads(encoding.unifromlocal(body))
     )
     if parsed.get(b'error_code'):
         msg = (_(b'Conduit Error (%s): %s')