diff --git a/lib/inspec/resources/http.rb b/lib/inspec/resources/http.rb
index 5c7f2e5a8..210f4d192 100644
--- a/lib/inspec/resources/http.rb
+++ b/lib/inspec/resources/http.rb
@@ -56,7 +56,7 @@ module Inspec::Resources
     end
 
     def body
-      @worker.body
+      @worker.body&.force_encoding(Encoding::UTF_8)
     end
 
     def http_method