diff --git a/src/requests/models.py b/src/requests/models.py
index 8f56ca7d23..e2712f6369 100644
--- a/src/requests/models.py
+++ b/src/requests/models.py
@@ -114,6 +114,8 @@ def _encode_params(data):
 
         if isinstance(data, (str, bytes)):
             return data
+        elif isinstance(data, list) and not data:
+            return ''
         elif hasattr(data, "read"):
             return data
         elif hasattr(data, "__iter__"):