diff --git a/server/providers/common/compress.js b/server/providers/common/compress.js
index d9938b87e..cbce21c6e 100644
--- a/server/providers/common/compress.js
+++ b/server/providers/common/compress.js
@@ -54,8 +54,7 @@ export function acceptsGzip(request) {
  * @returns {Promise<Buffer|null>}
  */
 export async function gzipBody(body) {
-  if (body == null) return null;
-  const raw = Buffer.isBuffer(body) ? body : Buffer.from(String(body));
+  const raw = Buffer.isBuffer(body) ? body : Buffer.from(body);
   if (raw.byteLength < MIN_COMPRESSED_BYTES) return null;
   const compressed = await gzipAsync(raw);
   return compressed.byteLength < raw.byteLength ? compressed : null;
diff --git a/src/tooling/responseCompression.test.mjs b/src/tooling/responseCompression.test.mjs
index 6fbd53193..011d767c3 100644
--- a/src/tooling/responseCompression.test.mjs
+++ b/src/tooling/responseCompression.test.mjs
@@ -81,8 +81,6 @@ test('accept-encoding is read the way clients actually write it', () => {
 });
 
 test('a body is only compressed when compression pays for itself', async () => {
-  assert.equal(await gzipBody(null), null);
-  assert.equal(await gzipBody(undefined), null);
   assert.equal(await gzipBody(''), null);
   assert.equal(
     await gzipBody('{"states":[]}'),