diff --git a/util/validate.py b/util/validate.py
index 2458cbfd..1c0d70db 100644
--- a/util/validate.py
+++ b/util/validate.py
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@
 parser = html5lib.HTMLParser()
 with open(input_filename, encoding='utf-8') as stream:
     data = stream.read()
-html5doc = parser.parse(data, encoding='utf-8')
+html5doc = parser.parse(data)
 if parser.errors:
     for ((line, column), errtype, params) in parser.errors:
         print("Error: {} {} on line {} of {}".format(errtype, repr(params), line, input_filename), file=sys.stderr)