diff --git a/lib/ansible/module_utils/basic.py b/lib/ansible/module_utils/basic.py
index 0da00053a0e..fbd1cdf4682 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/module_utils/basic.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/module_utils/basic.py
@@ -1240,7 +1240,10 @@ class AnsibleModule(object):
 
     def _load_params(self):
         ''' read the input and return a dictionary and the arguments string '''
-        params = json_dict_unicode_to_bytes(json.loads(MODULE_COMPLEX_ARGS))
+        params = json.loads(MODULE_COMPLEX_ARGS)
+        if str is bytes:
+            # Python 2
+            params = json_dict_unicode_to_bytes(params)
         if params is None:
             params = dict()
         return params