diff --git a/src/statici18n/templatetags/statici18n.py b/src/statici18n/templatetags/statici18n.py
index 121dda4..df137f7 100644
--- a/src/statici18n/templatetags/statici18n.py
+++ b/src/statici18n/templatetags/statici18n.py
@@ -42,4 +42,4 @@ def inlinei18n(locale):
     Behind the scenes, this is a thin wrapper around staticfiles's configred
     storage
     """
-    return mark_safe(staticfiles_storage.open(get_path(locale)).read())
+    return mark_safe(staticfiles_storage.open(get_path(locale)).read().decode())
diff --git a/tests/test_app.py b/tests/test_app.py
index d05e0aa..252e114 100644
--- a/tests/test_app.py
+++ b/tests/test_app.py
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 import io
 import os
 import pytest
+import re
 
 import django
 from django.core import management
@@ -147,3 +148,4 @@ def test_inlinei18n_templatetag(locale):
     rendered = template.render(Context({'LANGUAGE_CODE': to_locale(locale)})).strip()
     assert 'var django = globals.django || (globals.django = {});' in rendered
     assert '"' not in rendered
+    assert re.match('^<script>(r|b)\'', rendered) is None