diff --git a/zerver/lib/upload.py b/zerver/lib/upload.py
index 472f5f71a1..480c0d3e30 100644
--- a/zerver/lib/upload.py
+++ b/zerver/lib/upload.py
@@ -59,7 +59,7 @@ def attachment_url_to_path_id(attachment_url):
     # Remove any extra '.' after file extension. These are probably added by the user
     return re.sub('[.]+$', '', path_id_raw, re.M)
 
-def sanitize_name(raw_value):
+def sanitize_name(value):
     # type: (NonBinaryStr) -> Text
     """
     Sanitizes a value to be safe to store in a Linux filesystem, in
@@ -68,11 +68,9 @@ def sanitize_name(raw_value):
 
     This implementation is based on django.utils.text.slugify; it is
     modified by:
-    * hardcoding allow_unicode=True.
     * adding '.' and '_' to the list of allowed characters.
     * preserving the case of the value.
     """
-    value = force_text(raw_value)
     value = unicodedata.normalize('NFKC', value)
     value = re.sub('[^\w\s._-]', '', value, flags=re.U).strip()
     return mark_safe(re.sub('[-\s]+', '-', value, flags=re.U))