diff --git a/opentelemetry-api/src/opentelemetry/attributes/__init__.py b/opentelemetry-api/src/opentelemetry/attributes/__init__.py
index 497952984db..ce86918ca91 100644
--- a/opentelemetry-api/src/opentelemetry/attributes/__init__.py
+++ b/opentelemetry-api/src/opentelemetry/attributes/__init__.py
@@ -110,16 +110,6 @@ def _clean_attribute(
 def _clean_attribute_value(
     value: types.AttributeValue, limit: Optional[int]
 ) -> Optional[types.AttributeValue]:
-    if value is None:
-        return None
-
-    if isinstance(value, bytes):
-        try:
-            value = value.decode()
-        except UnicodeDecodeError:
-            _logger.warning("Byte attribute could not be decoded.")
-            return None
-
     if limit is not None and isinstance(value, str):
         value = value[:limit]
     return value
diff --git a/opentelemetry-api/tests/attributes/test_attributes.py b/opentelemetry-api/tests/attributes/test_attributes.py
index cf6aecb41fa..8209b5fb07e 100644
--- a/opentelemetry-api/tests/attributes/test_attributes.py
+++ b/opentelemetry-api/tests/attributes/test_attributes.py
@@ -79,10 +79,10 @@ def test_sequence_attr_decode(self):
         ]
         expected = [
             None,
-            "Content-Disposition",
-            "Content-Type",
-            None,
-            "Keep-Alive",
+            b"Content-Disposition",
+            b"Content-Type",
+            b"\x81",
+            b"Keep-Alive",
         ]
         self.assertEqual(
             _clean_attribute("headers", seq, None), tuple(expected)