diff --git a/requests_mock/response.py b/requests_mock/response.py
index 9661ed3..345d190 100644
--- a/requests_mock/response.py
+++ b/requests_mock/response.py
@@ -147,9 +147,9 @@ def create_response(request, **kwargs):
     json = kwargs.pop('json', None)
     encoding = None
 
-    if content and not isinstance(content, six.binary_type):
+    if content is not None and not isinstance(content, six.binary_type):
         raise TypeError('Content should be binary data')
-    if text and not isinstance(text, six.string_types):
+    if text is not None and not isinstance(text, six.string_types):
         raise TypeError('Text should be string data')
 
     if json is not None:
@@ -207,12 +207,12 @@ class _MatcherResponse(object):
         content = self._params.get('content')
         text = self._params.get('text')
 
-        if content and not (callable(content) or
-                            isinstance(content, six.binary_type)):
+        if content is not None and not (callable(content) or
+                                        isinstance(content, six.binary_type)):
             raise TypeError('Content should be a callback or binary data')
 
-        if text and not (callable(text) or
-                         isinstance(text, six.string_types)):
+        if text is not None and not (callable(text) or
+                                     isinstance(text, six.string_types)):
             raise TypeError('Text should be a callback or string data')
 
     def get_response(self, request):
diff --git a/requests_mock/tests/test_adapter.py b/requests_mock/tests/test_adapter.py
index 3d370d2..0f1dd30 100644
--- a/requests_mock/tests/test_adapter.py
+++ b/requests_mock/tests/test_adapter.py
@@ -265,6 +265,13 @@ class SessionAdapterTests(base.TestCase):
                           self.url,
                           content=six.u('unicode'))
 
+    def test_dont_pass_empty_string_as_content(self):
+        self.assertRaises(TypeError,
+                          self.adapter.register_uri,
+                          'GET',
+                          self.url,
+                          content=six.u(''))
+
     def test_dont_pass_bytes_as_text(self):
         if six.PY2:
             self.skipTest('Cannot enforce byte behaviour in PY2')
@@ -275,6 +282,16 @@ class SessionAdapterTests(base.TestCase):
                           self.url,
                           text=six.b('bytes'))
 
+    def test_dont_pass_empty_string_as_text(self):
+        if six.PY2:
+            self.skipTest('Cannot enforce byte behaviour in PY2')
+
+        self.assertRaises(TypeError,
+                          self.adapter.register_uri,
+                          'GET',
+                          self.url,
+                          text=six.b(''))
+
     def test_dont_pass_non_str_as_content(self):
         self.assertRaises(TypeError,
                           self.adapter.register_uri,
diff --git a/requests_mock/tests/test_response.py b/requests_mock/tests/test_response.py
index 42e00a5..d31c985 100644
--- a/requests_mock/tests/test_response.py
+++ b/requests_mock/tests/test_response.py
@@ -46,9 +46,14 @@ class ResponseTests(base.TestCase):
         self.assertRaises(TypeError, self.create_response, text=55)
         self.assertRaises(TypeError, self.create_response, text={'a': 1})
 
+        # this only works on python 2 because bytes is a string
+        if six.PY3:
+            self.assertRaises(TypeError, self.create_response, text=six.b(''))
+
     def test_text_type(self):
         self.assertRaises(TypeError, self.create_response, content=six.u('t'))
         self.assertRaises(TypeError, self.create_response, content={'a': 1})
+        self.assertRaises(TypeError, self.create_response, content=six.u(''))
 
     def test_json_body(self):
         data = {'a': 1}