diff --git a/plugins/discourse-local-dates/assets/javascripts/discourse-local-dates.js b/plugins/discourse-local-dates/assets/javascripts/discourse-local-dates.js
index 12fc0b1fb14..e9b107b8ea7 100644
--- a/plugins/discourse-local-dates/assets/javascripts/discourse-local-dates.js
+++ b/plugins/discourse-local-dates/assets/javascripts/discourse-local-dates.js
@@ -103,7 +103,7 @@
       options.date = $this.attr("data-date");
       options.time = $this.attr("data-time");
       options.recurring = $this.attr("data-recurring");
-      options.timezones = $this.attr("data-timezones") || "Etc/UTC";
+      options.timezones = $this.attr("data-timezones");
       options.forceTimezone = $this.attr("data-force-timezone");
 
       processElement($this, options);
diff --git a/plugins/discourse-local-dates/assets/javascripts/lib/discourse-markdown/discourse-local-dates.js.es6 b/plugins/discourse-local-dates/assets/javascripts/lib/discourse-markdown/discourse-local-dates.js.es6
index eae1e4ff0d4..f94b812b1cf 100644
--- a/plugins/discourse-local-dates/assets/javascripts/lib/discourse-markdown/discourse-local-dates.js.es6
+++ b/plugins/discourse-local-dates/assets/javascripts/lib/discourse-markdown/discourse-local-dates.js.es6
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ function addLocalDate(buffer, matches, state) {
     time: null,
     forceTimezone: null,
     format: "YYYY-MM-DD HH:mm:ss",
-    timezones: ""
+    timezones: "Etc/UTC"
   };
 
   let parsed = parseBBCodeTag(
@@ -28,11 +28,17 @@ function addLocalDate(buffer, matches, state) {
   token.attrs = [
     ["class", "discourse-local-date"],
     ["data-date", state.md.utils.escapeHtml(config.date)],
-    ["data-time", state.md.utils.escapeHtml(config.time)],
     ["data-format", state.md.utils.escapeHtml(config.format)],
     ["data-timezones", state.md.utils.escapeHtml(config.timezones)]
   ];
 
+  if (config.time) {
+    token.attrs.push([
+      "data-time",
+      state.md.utils.escapeHtml(config.time)
+    ]);
+  }
+
   let dateTime;
   if (config.forceTimezone) {
     token.attrs.push([