diff --git a/youtube_dl/extractor/facebook.py b/youtube_dl/extractor/facebook.py
index 8f9154c0e6..1f58d2e624 100644
--- a/youtube_dl/extractor/facebook.py
+++ b/youtube_dl/extractor/facebook.py
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+from __future__ import unicode_literals
+
 import json
 import re
 import socket
@@ -26,12 +28,13 @@ class FacebookIE(InfoExtractor):
     _LOGIN_URL = 'https://www.facebook.com/login.php?next=http%3A%2F%2Ffacebook.com%2Fhome.php&login_attempt=1'
     _CHECKPOINT_URL = 'https://www.facebook.com/checkpoint/?next=http%3A%2F%2Ffacebook.com%2Fhome.php&_fb_noscript=1'
     _NETRC_MACHINE = 'facebook'
-    IE_NAME = u'facebook'
+    IE_NAME = 'facebook'
     _TEST = {
-        u'url': u'https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=120708114770723',
-        u'file': u'120708114770723.mp4',
-        u'md5': u'48975a41ccc4b7a581abd68651c1a5a8',
-        u'info_dict': {
+        'url': 'https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=120708114770723',
+        'md5': '48975a41ccc4b7a581abd68651c1a5a8',
+        'info_dict': {
+            'id': '120708114770723',
+            'ext': 'mp4',
             u"duration": 279,
             u"title": u"PEOPLE ARE AWESOME 2013"
         }
@@ -39,7 +42,7 @@ class FacebookIE(InfoExtractor):
 
     def report_login(self):
         """Report attempt to log in."""
-        self.to_screen(u'Logging in')
+        self.to_screen('Logging in')
 
     def _login(self):
         (useremail, password) = self._get_login_info()
@@ -50,9 +53,9 @@ class FacebookIE(InfoExtractor):
         login_page_req.add_header('Cookie', 'locale=en_US')
         self.report_login()
         login_page = self._download_webpage(login_page_req, None, note=False,
-            errnote=u'Unable to download login page')
-        lsd = self._search_regex(r'"lsd":"(\w*?)"', login_page, u'lsd')
-        lgnrnd = self._search_regex(r'name="lgnrnd" value="([^"]*?)"', login_page, u'lgnrnd')
+            errnote='Unable to download login page')
+        lsd = self._search_regex(r'"lsd":"(\w*?)"', login_page, 'lsd')
+        lgnrnd = self._search_regex(r'name="lgnrnd" value="([^"]*?)"', login_page, 'lgnrnd')
 
         login_form = {
             'email': useremail,
@@ -70,22 +73,22 @@ class FacebookIE(InfoExtractor):
         try:
             login_results = compat_urllib_request.urlopen(request).read()
             if re.search(r'<form(.*)name="login"(.*)</form>', login_results) is not None:
-                self._downloader.report_warning(u'unable to log in: bad username/password, or exceded login rate limit (~3/min). Check credentials or wait.')
+                self._downloader.report_warning('unable to log in: bad username/password, or exceded login rate limit (~3/min). Check credentials or wait.')
                 return
 
             check_form = {
-                'fb_dtsg': self._search_regex(r'"fb_dtsg":"(.*?)"', login_results, u'fb_dtsg'),
-                'nh': self._search_regex(r'name="nh" value="(\w*?)"', login_results, u'nh'),
+                'fb_dtsg': self._search_regex(r'"fb_dtsg":"(.*?)"', login_results, 'fb_dtsg'),
+                'nh': self._search_regex(r'name="nh" value="(\w*?)"', login_results, 'nh'),
                 'name_action_selected': 'dont_save',
-                'submit[Continue]': self._search_regex(r'<input value="(.*?)" name="submit\[Continue\]"', login_results, u'continue'),
+                'submit[Continue]': self._search_regex(r'<input value="(.*?)" name="submit\[Continue\]"', login_results, 'continue'),
             }
             check_req = compat_urllib_request.Request(self._CHECKPOINT_URL, compat_urllib_parse.urlencode(check_form))
             check_req.add_header('Content-Type', 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded')
             check_response = compat_urllib_request.urlopen(check_req).read()
             if re.search(r'id="checkpointSubmitButton"', check_response) is not None:
-                self._downloader.report_warning(u'Unable to confirm login, you have to login in your brower and authorize the login.')
+                self._downloader.report_warning('Unable to confirm login, you have to login in your brower and authorize the login.')
         except (compat_urllib_error.URLError, compat_http_client.HTTPException, socket.error) as err:
-            self._downloader.report_warning(u'unable to log in: %s' % compat_str(err))
+            self._downloader.report_warning('unable to log in: %s' % compat_str(err))
             return
 
     def _real_initialize(self):
@@ -94,7 +97,7 @@ class FacebookIE(InfoExtractor):
     def _real_extract(self, url):
         mobj = re.match(self._VALID_URL, url)
         if mobj is None:
-            raise ExtractorError(u'Invalid URL: %s' % url)
+            raise ExtractorError('Invalid URL: %s' % url)
         video_id = mobj.group('id')
 
         url = 'https://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=%s' % video_id
@@ -107,10 +110,10 @@ class FacebookIE(InfoExtractor):
             m_msg = re.search(r'class="[^"]*uiInterstitialContent[^"]*"><div>(.*?)</div>', webpage)
             if m_msg is not None:
                 raise ExtractorError(
-                    u'The video is not available, Facebook said: "%s"' % m_msg.group(1),
+                    'The video is not available, Facebook said: "%s"' % m_msg.group(1),
                     expected=True)
             else:
-                raise ExtractorError(u'Cannot parse data')
+                raise ExtractorError('Cannot parse data')
         data = dict(json.loads(m.group(1)))
         params_raw = compat_urllib_parse.unquote(data['params'])
         params = json.loads(params_raw)
@@ -119,12 +122,12 @@ class FacebookIE(InfoExtractor):
         if not video_url:
             video_url = video_data['sd_src']
         if not video_url:
-            raise ExtractorError(u'Cannot find video URL')
+            raise ExtractorError('Cannot find video URL')
         video_duration = int(video_data['video_duration'])
         thumbnail = video_data['thumbnail_src']
 
         video_title = self._html_search_regex(
-            r'<h2 class="uiHeaderTitle">([^<]*)</h2>', webpage, u'title')
+            r'<h2 class="uiHeaderTitle">([^<]*)</h2>', webpage, 'title')
 
         info = {
             'id': video_id,