diff --git a/mod/salmon.php b/mod/salmon.php
index 536a4516ce..84d2942d53 100644
--- a/mod/salmon.php
+++ b/mod/salmon.php
@@ -184,7 +184,7 @@ function salmon_post(App $a, $xml = '') {
 	// Placeholder for hub discovery.
 	$hub = '';
 
-	$contact_rec = ((DBA::isResult($r)) ? $r[0] : null);
+	$contact_rec = ((DBA::isResult($r)) ? $r[0] : []);
 
 	OStatus::import($data, $importer, $contact_rec, $hub);
 
diff --git a/src/Protocol/OStatus.php b/src/Protocol/OStatus.php
index acb49efcc7..b1cc4f4020 100644
--- a/src/Protocol/OStatus.php
+++ b/src/Protocol/OStatus.php
@@ -74,7 +74,7 @@ class OStatus
 
 		$author["contact-id"] = $contact["id"];
 
-		$contact = null;
+		$contact = [];
 
 /*
 		This here would be better, but we would get problems with contacts from the statusnet addon
@@ -231,7 +231,7 @@ class OStatus
 
 			GContact::link($gcid, $contact["uid"], $contact["id"]);
 		} elseif ($contact["network"] != Protocol::DFRN) {
-			$contact = null;
+			$contact = [];
 		}
 
 		return $author;