diff --git a/src/webview/MessageListWeb.js b/src/webview/MessageListWeb.js
index dc760b11e1c..330a6526b86 100644
--- a/src/webview/MessageListWeb.js
+++ b/src/webview/MessageListWeb.js
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ import getHtml from './html/html';
 import renderMessagesAsHtml from './html/renderMessagesAsHtml';
 import { getInputMessages } from './webViewHandleUpdates';
 import * as webViewEventHandlers from './webViewEventHandlers';
+import { base64Utf8Encode } from '../utils/encoding';
 
 export default class MessageListWeb extends Component<Props> {
   context: Context;
@@ -29,7 +30,7 @@ export default class MessageListWeb extends Component<Props> {
 
   sendMessages = (messages: WebviewInputMessage[]): void => {
     if (this.webview && messages.length > 0) {
-      this.webview.postMessage(JSON.stringify(messages), '*');
+      this.webview.postMessage(base64Utf8Encode(JSON.stringify(messages)), '*');
     }
   };
 
diff --git a/src/webview/js/generatedEs3.js b/src/webview/js/generatedEs3.js
index 85021763fc8..752916bca8b 100644
--- a/src/webview/js/generatedEs3.js
+++ b/src/webview/js/generatedEs3.js
@@ -228,7 +228,8 @@ var messageHandlers = {
 document.addEventListener('message', function (e) {
   scrollEventsDisabled = true;
 
-  var messages = JSON.parse(e.data);
+  var decodedData = decodeURIComponent(escape(window.atob(e.data)));
+  var messages = JSON.parse(decodedData);
   messages.forEach(function (msg) {
     messageHandlers[msg.type](msg);
   });
diff --git a/src/webview/js/js.js b/src/webview/js/js.js
index d1ed3f06370..18e33479fcd 100644
--- a/src/webview/js/js.js
+++ b/src/webview/js/js.js
@@ -252,7 +252,8 @@ const messageHandlers = {
 document.addEventListener('message', e => {
   scrollEventsDisabled = true;
   // $FlowFixMe
-  const messages: WebviewInputMessage[] = JSON.parse(e.data);
+  const decodedData = decodeURIComponent(escape(window.atob(e.data)));
+  const messages: WebviewInputMessage[] = JSON.parse(decodedData);
   messages.forEach((msg: WebviewInputMessage) => {
     // $FlowFixMe
     messageHandlers[msg.type](msg);