diff --git a/lib/ansible/runner/action_plugins/copy.py b/lib/ansible/runner/action_plugins/copy.py
index 0ee9b6f3ced..79acdaba587 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/runner/action_plugins/copy.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/runner/action_plugins/copy.py
@@ -54,6 +54,12 @@ class ActionModule(object):
         raw     = utils.boolean(options.get('raw', 'no'))
         force   = utils.boolean(options.get('force', 'yes'))
 
+        # content with newlines is going to be escaped to safely load in yaml
+        # now we need to unescape it so that the newlines are evaluated properly
+        # when writing the file to disk
+        if content:
+            content = content.decode('unicode-escape')
+
         if (source is None and content is None and not 'first_available_file' in inject) or dest is None:
             result=dict(failed=True, msg="src (or content) and dest are required")
             return ReturnData(conn=conn, result=result)