diff --git a/open_facebook/api.py b/open_facebook/api.py
index fdb88716..b3a121a2 100644
--- a/open_facebook/api.py
+++ b/open_facebook/api.py
@@ -97,10 +97,10 @@
 try:
     # python 2 imports
     from urlparse import urlparse
-    from urllib2 import build_opener, HTTPError, URLError
+    from urllib2 import build_opener, HTTPError, URLError, HTTPSHandler
 except ImportError:
     # python 3 imports
-    from urllib.error import HTTPError, URLError
+    from urllib.error import HTTPError, URLError, HTTPSHandler
     from urllib.parse import urlparse
     from urllib.request import build_opener
 
@@ -164,7 +164,10 @@ def _request(cls, url, post_data=None, timeout=REQUEST_TIMEOUT,
             return response
 
         # nicely identify ourselves before sending the request
-        opener = build_opener()
+        ctx = ssl.create_default_context()
+        ctx.check_hostname = False
+        ctx.verify_mode = ssl.CERT_NONE
+        opener = build_opener(HTTPSHandler(context=ctx))
         opener.addheaders = [('User-agent', 'Open Facebook Python')]
 
         # get the statsd path to track response times with