diff --git a/lib/request/basic.py b/lib/request/basic.py
index 168719694..80b662c6f 100644
--- a/lib/request/basic.py
+++ b/lib/request/basic.py
@@ -353,7 +353,7 @@ def decodePage(page, contentEncoding, contentType, percentDecode=True):
 
             if (kb.pageEncoding or "").lower() == "utf-8-sig":
                 kb.pageEncoding = "utf-8"
-                if page and page.startswith("\xef\xbb\xbf"):  # Reference: https://docs.python.org/2/library/codecs.html (Note: noticed problems when "utf-8-sig" is left to Python for handling)
+                if page and page.startswith(b"\xef\xbb\xbf"):  # Reference: https://docs.python.org/2/library/codecs.html (Note: noticed problems when "utf-8-sig" is left to Python for handling)
                     page = page[3:]
 
             page = getUnicode(page, kb.pageEncoding)