2 files changed, 6 insertions, 7 deletions

diff --git a/mastodon/Mastodon.py b/mastodon/Mastodon.py
index d0b3606..6a783b4 100644
--- a/mastodon/Mastodon.py
+++ b/mastodon/Mastodon.py
@@ -3647,11 +3647,8 @@ class Mastodon:
                         else:
                             json_object[k] = dateutil.parser.parse(v)
                     except:
-                        if isinstance(v, str) and len(v.strip()) == 0:
-                            # Pleroma bug workaround: Empty string becomes start of epoch
-                            json_object[k] = datetime.datetime.fromtimestamp(0)
-                        else:
-                            raise MastodonAPIError('Encountered invalid date.')
+                        # When we can't parse a date, we just leave the field out
+                        del json_object[k]
         return json_object
 
     @staticmethod
diff --git a/tests/test_constructor.py b/tests/test_constructor.py
index d997a5d..ed38b9c 100644
--- a/tests/test_constructor.py
+++ b/tests/test_constructor.py
@@ -8,8 +8,10 @@ def test_constructor_from_filenames(tmpdir):
     access = tmpdir.join('access')
     access.write_text(u'baz\n', 'UTF-8')
     api = Mastodon(
-            str(client),
-            access_token=str(access))
+        str(client),
+        access_token=str(access),
+        api_base_url="mastodon.social"
+    )
     assert api.client_id == 'foo'
     assert api.client_secret == 'bar'
     assert api.access_token == 'baz'