diff --git a/beat/core/hash.py b/beat/core/hash.py
index 751c010aa5311b051f215e6b18def33b135f5ecb..5ecdd53139550a5e174bdd090444b69c0c66cdb2 100644
--- a/beat/core/hash.py
+++ b/beat/core/hash.py
@@ -46,7 +46,7 @@ Also forward importing from :py:mod:`beat.backend.python.hash`
 
 import collections
 
-import simplejson
+import simplejson as json
 
 from beat.backend.python.hash import *  # noqa
 from beat.backend.python.hash import _sha256  # noqa
@@ -165,9 +165,8 @@ def hashJSONStr(contents, description):
 
     try:
         return hashJSON(  # noqa
-            simplejson.loads(contents, object_pairs_hook=collections.OrderedDict),
-            description,
+            json.loads(contents, object_pairs_hook=collections.OrderedDict), description
         )  # preserve order
-    except simplejson.JSONDecodeError:
+    except json.JSONDecodeError:
         # falls back to normal file content hashing
         return hash(contents)