diff --git a/extractor/src/main/java/org/schabi/newpipe/extractor/StreamingService.java b/extractor/src/main/java/org/schabi/newpipe/extractor/StreamingService.java
index 86bd9d1f8..26e84da97 100644
--- a/extractor/src/main/java/org/schabi/newpipe/extractor/StreamingService.java
+++ b/extractor/src/main/java/org/schabi/newpipe/extractor/StreamingService.java
@@ -308,11 +308,11 @@ public abstract class StreamingService {
         LinkHandlerFactory cH = getChannelLHFactory();
         LinkHandlerFactory pH = getPlaylistLHFactory();
 
-        if (sH.acceptUrl(url)) {
+        if (sH != null && sH.acceptUrl(url)) {
             return LinkType.STREAM;
-        } else if (cH.acceptUrl(url)) {
+        } else if (cH != null && cH.acceptUrl(url)) {
             return LinkType.CHANNEL;
-        } else if (pH.acceptUrl(url)) {
+        } else if (pH != null && pH.acceptUrl(url)) {
             return LinkType.PLAYLIST;
         } else {
             return LinkType.NONE;
diff --git a/extractor/src/main/java/org/schabi/newpipe/extractor/services/youtube/extractors/YoutubeCommentsInfoItemExtractor.java b/extractor/src/main/java/org/schabi/newpipe/extractor/services/youtube/extractors/YoutubeCommentsInfoItemExtractor.java
index 471cafd9c..1d447bd55 100644
--- a/extractor/src/main/java/org/schabi/newpipe/extractor/services/youtube/extractors/YoutubeCommentsInfoItemExtractor.java
+++ b/extractor/src/main/java/org/schabi/newpipe/extractor/services/youtube/extractors/YoutubeCommentsInfoItemExtractor.java
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ package org.schabi.newpipe.extractor.services.youtube.extractors;
 import org.schabi.newpipe.extractor.comments.CommentsInfoItemExtractor;
 import org.schabi.newpipe.extractor.exceptions.ParsingException;
 import org.schabi.newpipe.extractor.utils.JsonUtils;
+import org.schabi.newpipe.extractor.utils.Utils;
 
 import com.grack.nanojson.JsonArray;
 import com.grack.nanojson.JsonObject;
@@ -62,7 +63,9 @@ public class YoutubeCommentsInfoItemExtractor implements CommentsInfoItemExtract
     @Override
     public String getCommentText() throws ParsingException {
         try {
-            return YoutubeCommentsExtractor.getYoutubeText(JsonUtils.getObject(json, "contentText"));
+            String commentText = YoutubeCommentsExtractor.getYoutubeText(JsonUtils.getObject(json, "contentText"));
+            // youtube adds U+FEFF in some comments. eg. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nj4F63E59io<feff>
+            return Utils.removeUTF8BOM(commentText);
         } catch (Exception e) {
             throw new ParsingException("Could not get comment text", e);
         }
diff --git a/extractor/src/main/java/org/schabi/newpipe/extractor/utils/Utils.java b/extractor/src/main/java/org/schabi/newpipe/extractor/utils/Utils.java
index af3580064..3dd01c49c 100644
--- a/extractor/src/main/java/org/schabi/newpipe/extractor/utils/Utils.java
+++ b/extractor/src/main/java/org/schabi/newpipe/extractor/utils/Utils.java
@@ -1,13 +1,13 @@
 package org.schabi.newpipe.extractor.utils;
 
-import org.schabi.newpipe.extractor.exceptions.ParsingException;
-
 import java.io.UnsupportedEncodingException;
 import java.net.MalformedURLException;
 import java.net.URL;
 import java.net.URLDecoder;
 import java.util.List;
 
+import org.schabi.newpipe.extractor.exceptions.ParsingException;
+
 public class Utils {
 
     private Utils() {
@@ -133,4 +133,14 @@ public class Utils {
 
         return setsNoPort || usesDefaultPort;
     }
+    
+    public static String removeUTF8BOM(String s) {
+        if (s.startsWith("\uFEFF")) {
+            s = s.substring(1);
+        }
+        if (s.endsWith("\uFEFF")) {
+            s = s.substring(0,  s.length()-1);
+        }
+        return s;
+    }
 }
\ No newline at end of file