diff --git a/confluent_server/confluent/util.py b/confluent_server/confluent/util.py
index 5cfafa3e..a44c5b96 100644
--- a/confluent_server/confluent/util.py
+++ b/confluent_server/confluent/util.py
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ def stringify(instr):
     # Normalize unicode and bytes to 'str', correcting for
     # current python version
     if isinstance(instr, bytes) and not isinstance(instr, str):
-        return instr.decode('utf-8')
+        return instr.decode('utf-8', errors='replace')
     elif not isinstance(instr, bytes) and not isinstance(instr, str):
         return instr.encode('utf-8')
     return instr