diff --git a/src/taskgraph/util/taskcluster.py b/src/taskgraph/util/taskcluster.py
index fdc9ce414..cebc4e5da 100644
--- a/src/taskgraph/util/taskcluster.py
+++ b/src/taskgraph/util/taskcluster.py
@@ -143,7 +143,7 @@ def _handle_artifact(path, response):
     if path.endswith(".json"):
         return response.json()
     if path.endswith(".yml"):
-        return yaml.load_stream(response.text)
+        return yaml.load_stream(response.content)
     response.raw.read = functools.partial(response.raw.read, decode_content=True)
     return response.raw
 
diff --git a/test/test_util_taskcluster.py b/test/test_util_taskcluster.py
index f79b2a428..39f604a78 100644
--- a/test/test_util_taskcluster.py
+++ b/test/test_util_taskcluster.py
@@ -154,6 +154,21 @@ def test_get_artifact(responses, root_url):
     )
     assert tc.get_artifact(tid, "artifact.yml") == {"foo": "bar"}
 
+    responses.add(
+        responses.GET,
+        f"{root_url}/api/queue/v1/task/{tid}/artifacts/artifact.yml",
+        body=b"foo: \xe2\x81\x83",
+    )
+    assert tc.get_artifact(tid, "artifact.yml") == {"foo": b"\xe2\x81\x83".decode()}
+
+    responses.add(
+        responses.GET,
+        f"{root_url}/api/queue/v1/task/{tid}/artifacts/artifact.yml",
+        body=b"foo: \xe2\x81\x83".decode().encode("utf-16"),
+        headers={"Content-Type": "text/yaml; charset=utf-16"},
+    )
+    assert tc.get_artifact(tid, "artifact.yml") == {"foo": b"\xe2\x81\x83".decode()}
+
 
 def test_list_artifact(responses, root_url):
     tid = 123