diff --git a/Doc/library/io.rst b/Doc/library/io.rst
@@ -198,12 +198,13 @@ High-level Module Interface
   This is a helper function for callables that use :func:`open` or
   :class:`TextIOWrapper` and have an ``encoding=None`` parameter.

-   This function returns *encoding* if it is not ``None`` and ``"locale"`` if
-   *encoding* is ``None``.

   This function emits an :class:`EncodingWarning` if
   :data:`sys.flags.warn_default_encoding <sys.flags>` is true and *encoding*
-   is None. *stacklevel* specifies where the warning is emitted.
   For example::

      def read_text(path, encoding=None):
@@ -218,6 +219,10 @@ High-level Module Interface

   .. versionadded:: 3.10


.. exception:: BlockingIOError


diff --git a/Include/internal/pycore_global_strings.h b/Include/internal/pycore_global_strings.h
@@ -48,6 +48,7 @@ struct _Py_global_strings {
        STRUCT_FOR_STR(newline, "\n")
        STRUCT_FOR_STR(open_br, "{")
        STRUCT_FOR_STR(percent, "%")
    } literals;

    struct {

@@ -672,6 +672,7 @@ extern "C" {
                INIT_STR(newline, "\n"), \
                INIT_STR(open_br, "{"), \
                INIT_STR(percent, "%"), \
            }, \
            .identifiers = { \
                INIT_ID(False), \

diff --git a/Lib/test/test_utf8_mode.py b/Lib/test/test_utf8_mode.py
@@ -161,7 +161,7 @@ def test_io(self):
        filename = __file__

        out = self.get_output('-c', code, filename, PYTHONUTF8='1')
-        self.assertEqual(out, 'UTF-8/strict')

    def _check_io_encoding(self, module, encoding=None, errors=None):
        filename = __file__
@@ -183,10 +183,10 @@ def _check_io_encoding(self, module, encoding=None, errors=None):
                              PYTHONUTF8='1')

        if not encoding:
-            encoding = 'UTF-8'
        if not errors:
            errors = 'strict'
-        self.assertEqual(out, f'{encoding}/{errors}')

    def check_io_encoding(self, module):
        self._check_io_encoding(module, encoding="latin1")

diff --git a/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2022-03-20-13-00-08.bpo-47000.p8HpG0.rst b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2022-03-20-13-00-08.bpo-47000.p8HpG0.rst
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
diff --git a/Modules/_io/_iomodule.c b/Modules/_io/_iomodule.c
@@ -457,8 +457,9 @@ _io.text_encoding

A helper function to choose the text encoding.

-When encoding is not None, just return it.
-Otherwise, return the default text encoding (i.e. "locale").

This function emits an EncodingWarning if encoding is None and
sys.flags.warn_default_encoding is true.
@@ -469,7 +470,7 @@ However, please consider using encoding="utf-8" for new APIs.

static PyObject *
_io_text_encoding_impl(PyObject *module, PyObject *encoding, int stacklevel)
-/*[clinic end generated code: output=91b2cfea6934cc0c input=bf70231213e2a7b4]*/
{
    if (encoding == NULL || encoding == Py_None) {
        PyInterpreterState *interp = _PyInterpreterState_GET();
@@ -479,7 +480,14 @@ _io_text_encoding_impl(PyObject *module, PyObject *encoding, int stacklevel)
                return NULL;
            }
        }
-        return &_Py_ID(locale);
    }
    Py_INCREF(encoding);
    return encoding;

diff --git a/Modules/_io/clinic/_iomodule.c.h b/Modules/_io/clinic/_iomodule.c.h
@@ -841,7 +841,10 @@ static PyObject *
sys_getdefaultencoding_impl(PyObject *module)
/*[clinic end generated code: output=256d19dfcc0711e6 input=d416856ddbef6909]*/
{
-    return PyUnicode_FromString(PyUnicode_GetDefaultEncoding());
}

/*[clinic input]