diff --git a/lib/galaxy/util/__init__.py b/lib/galaxy/util/__init__.py
index 26909cc3f437..fece589be7d2 100644
--- a/lib/galaxy/util/__init__.py
+++ b/lib/galaxy/util/__init__.py
@@ -1101,7 +1101,7 @@ def smart_str(s, encoding=DEFAULT_ENCODING, strings_only=False, errors='strict')
 
 def strip_control_characters(s):
     """Strip unicode control characters from a string."""
-    return " ".join(c for c in unicodify(s) if unicodedata.category(c) != "Cc")
+    return "".join(c for c in unicodify(s) if unicodedata.category(c) != "Cc")
 
 
 def object_to_string(obj):