diff --git a/ext_federation/src/ap_client.rs b/ext_federation/src/ap_client.rs
index acd1f9b..b02a0fa 100644
--- a/ext_federation/src/ap_client.rs
+++ b/ext_federation/src/ap_client.rs
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
-use std::{fmt::Display, sync::Arc};
+use std::{borrow::Cow, fmt::Display, string::FromUtf8Error, sync::Arc};
 
 use chrono::Utc;
+use futures::{FutureExt, TryFutureExt};
 use http::{HeaderMap, HeaderName, HeaderValue, Method};
 use indexmap::IndexSet;
 use serde_json::Value;
@@ -74,6 +75,8 @@ pub enum ApClientError {
     SerializerError(#[from] serde_json::Error),
     #[error("Invalid header value: {0}")]
     InvalidHeaderValue(#[from] http::header::InvalidHeaderValue),
+    #[error("UTF-8 parse error: {0}")]
+    Utf8ParseError(#[from] FromUtf8Error),
 }
 
 trait CreateField {
@@ -342,7 +345,7 @@ impl ApClientService for ApClientServiceDefaultProvider {
         expires: Option<chrono::DateTime<Utc>>,
         url: &str,
         body: &Value,
-    ) -> Result<Value, Self::Error> {
+    ) -> Result<String, Self::Error> {
         let url = url.parse()?;
         let body_bytes = serde_json::to_vec(body)?;
         let mut sha = sha2::Sha256::new();
@@ -407,12 +410,13 @@ impl ApClientService for ApClientServiceDefaultProvider {
             .as_ref()
             .as_ref()
             .builder(Method::POST, url)
-            .accept(ContentActivityStreams)
             .content_type(ContentActivityStreams)
             .headers(headers)
             .body(body_bytes)
-            .json()
-            .await?)
+            .send()
+            .map_ok(String::from_utf8)
+            .await??
+            .to_string())
     }
 }
 
diff --git a/ext_federation/src/lib.rs b/ext_federation/src/lib.rs
index 473e0b4..4b0801c 100644
--- a/ext_federation/src/lib.rs
+++ b/ext_federation/src/lib.rs
@@ -172,5 +172,5 @@ pub trait ApClientService: Send + Sync {
         expires: Option<chrono::DateTime<Utc>>,
         url: &str,
         body: &Value,
-    ) -> Result<Value, Self::Error>;
+    ) -> Result<String, Self::Error>;
 }