diff --git a/python/setup.py b/python/setup.py
index fa1b81737..9386a2d55 100644
--- a/python/setup.py
+++ b/python/setup.py
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ def main():
         long_description=long_description,
         author='holger krekel, Floris Bruynooghe, Bjoern Petersen and contributors',
         setup_requires=['cffi>=1.0.0'],
-        install_requires=['cffi>=1.0.0', 'requests', 'attrs', 'six'],
+        install_requires=['cffi>=1.0.0', 'attrs', 'six'],
         packages=setuptools.find_packages('src'),
         package_dir={'': 'src'},
         cffi_modules=['src/deltachat/_build.py:ffibuilder'],
diff --git a/python/src/deltachat/account.py b/python/src/deltachat/account.py
index 9025cee14..25aaad15e 100644
--- a/python/src/deltachat/account.py
+++ b/python/src/deltachat/account.py
@@ -5,7 +5,6 @@ import threading
 import os
 import re
 import time
-import requests
 from array import array
 try:
     from queue import Queue
@@ -387,22 +386,6 @@ class IOThreads:
 class EventHandler(object):
     _dc_context = attr.ib(validator=v.instance_of(ffi.CData))
 
-    def read_url(self, url):
-        try:
-            r = requests.get(url)
-        except requests.ConnectionError:
-            return ''
-        else:
-            return r.content
-
-    def dc_event_http_get(self, data1, data2):
-        url = data1
-        content = self.read_url(url)
-        if not isinstance(content, bytes):
-            content = content.encode("utf8")
-        # we need to return a fresh pointer that the core owns
-        return lib.dupstring_helper(content)
-
     def dc_event_is_offline(self, data1, data2):
         return 0  # always online