diff --git a/youtube_dl/extractor/facebook.py b/youtube_dl/extractor/facebook.py
index 96e303c00..0160b5a9d 100644
--- a/youtube_dl/extractor/facebook.py
+++ b/youtube_dl/extractor/facebook.py
@@ -455,10 +455,14 @@ class FacebookIE(InfoExtractor):
         else:
             video_title = 'Facebook video #%s' % video_id
 
+        def _lowercase_escape(s):
+            if s:
+                return lowercase_escape(s)
+
         uploader = clean_html(get_element_by_id(
             'fbPhotoPageAuthorName', webpage)) or self._search_regex(
             r'ownerName\s*:\s*"([^"]+)"', webpage, 'uploader',default=None) or \
-                   lowercase_escape(self._search_regex(
+                   _lowercase_escape(self._search_regex(
                         r'\"ownerName\":"(.+?)"', tahoe_data.secondary,
                         'uploader_id', fatal=False)) or self._og_search_title(webpage, default=None)