diff --git a/mastodon/Mastodon.py b/mastodon/Mastodon.py
index c454aa1..ad8e963 100644
--- a/mastodon/Mastodon.py
+++ b/mastodon/Mastodon.py
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ import os.path
 import time
 import datetime
 import collections
+from contextlib import closing
 import requests
 from requests.models import urlencode
 import dateutil
@@ -3744,4 +3745,3 @@ class Mastodon(Internals):
         if api_okay in [b'OK', b'success']:
             return True
         return False
-
diff --git a/mastodon/internals.py b/mastodon/internals.py
index a19ed77..415e22d 100644
--- a/mastodon/internals.py
+++ b/mastodon/internals.py
@@ -4,7 +4,6 @@ import mimetypes
 import threading
 import six
 import uuid
-import pytz
 import dateutil.parser
 import time
 import copy
@@ -24,7 +23,7 @@ from .defaults import _DEFAULT_STREAM_TIMEOUT, _DEFAULT_STREAM_RECONNECT_WAIT_SE
 ###
 # Internal helpers, dragons probably
 ###
-class Mastodon():
+class Mastodon(): 
     def __datetime_to_epoch(self, date_time):
         """
         Converts a python datetime to unix epoch, accounting for
@@ -32,15 +31,10 @@ class Mastodon():
 
         Assumes UTC if timezone is not given.
         """
-        date_time_utc = None
         if date_time.tzinfo is None:
-            date_time_utc = date_time.replace(tzinfo=pytz.utc)
-        else:
-            date_time_utc = date_time.astimezone(pytz.utc)
+            date_time = date_time.replace(tzinfo=datetime.timezone.utc)
+        return date_time.timestamp()
 
-        epoch_utc = datetime.datetime.utcfromtimestamp(0).replace(tzinfo=pytz.utc)
-
-        return (date_time_utc - epoch_utc).total_seconds()
 
     def __get_logged_in_id(self):
         """
@@ -73,7 +67,7 @@ class Mastodon():
                 if v is not None:
                     try:
                         if isinstance(v, int):
-                            json_object[k] = datetime.datetime.fromtimestamp(v, pytz.utc)
+                            json_object[k] = datetime.datetime.fromtimestamp(v, datetime.timezone.utc)
                         else:
                             json_object[k] = dateutil.parser.parse(v)
                     except:
@@ -129,7 +123,7 @@ class Mastodon():
         every time instead of randomly doing different things on some systems
         and also it represents that time as the equivalent UTC time.
         """
-        isotime = datetime_val.astimezone(pytz.utc).strftime("%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S%z")
+        isotime = datetime_val.astimezone(datetime.timezone.utc).strftime("%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S%z")
         if isotime[-2] != ":":
             isotime = isotime[:-2] + ":" + isotime[-2:]
         return isotime
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 1f03b30..29feedb 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -33,7 +33,6 @@ setup(name='Mastodon.py',
           'requests>=2.4.2', 
           'python-dateutil', 
           'six', 
-          'pytz',
           'python-magic',
           'decorator>=4.0.0', 
       ] + blurhash_deps,
diff --git a/tests/test_status.py b/tests/test_status.py
index e747571..1fa7fd5 100644
--- a/tests/test_status.py
+++ b/tests/test_status.py
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 import pytest
 from mastodon.Mastodon import MastodonAPIError, MastodonNotFoundError
 import datetime
-import pytz
+import zoneinfo
 import vcr
 import time
 import pickle
@@ -154,7 +154,7 @@ def test_status_pin_unpin(status, api):
 
 @pytest.mark.vcr(match_on=['path'])
 def test_scheduled_status(api):
-    base_time = datetime.datetime(4000, 1, 1, 12, 13, 14, 0, pytz.timezone("Etc/GMT+2"))
+    base_time = datetime.datetime(4000, 1, 1, 12, 13, 14, 0, zoneinfo.ZoneInfo("Etc/GMT+2"))
     the_future = base_time + datetime.timedelta(minutes=20)
     scheduled_toot = api.status_post("please ensure adequate headroom", scheduled_at=the_future)
     assert scheduled_toot