diff --git a/shared/text.py b/shared/text.py
index 7b714fda6..40fbdaf8c 100644
--- a/shared/text.py
+++ b/shared/text.py
@@ -7,6 +7,8 @@ def sanitize(s: str) -> str:
         s = s.encode('latin-1').decode('utf-8')
     except UnicodeDecodeError:
         pass
+    except UnicodeEncodeError:
+        pass
     return html.unescape(s)
 
 def unambiguous_prefixes(words: list[str]) -> list[str]: