diff --git a/commafeed-server/src/main/java/com/commafeed/backend/HttpGetter.java b/commafeed-server/src/main/java/com/commafeed/backend/HttpGetter.java
index 8381fec4..39eef682 100644
--- a/commafeed-server/src/main/java/com/commafeed/backend/HttpGetter.java
+++ b/commafeed-server/src/main/java/com/commafeed/backend/HttpGetter.java
@@ -128,7 +128,7 @@ public class HttpGetter implements Managed {
 				response.getUrlAfterRedirect());
 	}
 
-	private CloseableHttpClient newClient(String userAgent, int poolSize) {
+	private static CloseableHttpClient newClient(String userAgent, int poolSize) {
 		SSLFactory sslFactory = SSLFactory.builder().withUnsafeTrustMaterial().withUnsafeHostnameVerifier().build();
 
 		List<Header> headers = new ArrayList<>();
diff --git a/commafeed-server/src/main/java/com/commafeed/backend/favicon/FacebookFaviconFetcher.java b/commafeed-server/src/main/java/com/commafeed/backend/favicon/FacebookFaviconFetcher.java
index 8eaefdbe..6de2eb45 100644
--- a/commafeed-server/src/main/java/com/commafeed/backend/favicon/FacebookFaviconFetcher.java
+++ b/commafeed-server/src/main/java/com/commafeed/backend/favicon/FacebookFaviconFetcher.java
@@ -2,11 +2,10 @@ package com.commafeed.backend.favicon;
 
 import java.net.URI;
 import java.net.URISyntaxException;
-import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;
 import java.util.List;
 
-import org.apache.http.NameValuePair;
-import org.apache.http.client.utils.URLEncodedUtils;
+import org.apache.hc.core5.http.NameValuePair;
+import org.apache.hc.core5.net.URIBuilder;
 
 import com.commafeed.backend.HttpGetter;
 import com.commafeed.backend.HttpGetter.HttpResult;
@@ -66,13 +65,9 @@ public class FacebookFaviconFetcher extends AbstractFaviconFetcher {
 			log.debug("could not parse url", e);
 			return null;
 		}
-		List<NameValuePair> params = URLEncodedUtils.parse(uri, StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
-		for (NameValuePair param : params) {
-			if ("id".equals(param.getName())) {
-				return param.getValue();
-			}
-		}
-		return null;
+
+		List<NameValuePair> params = new URIBuilder(uri).getQueryParams();
+		return params.stream().filter(p -> "id".equals(p.getName())).map(NameValuePair::getValue).findFirst().orElse(null);
 	}
 
 }
diff --git a/commafeed-server/src/main/java/com/commafeed/backend/favicon/YoutubeFaviconFetcher.java b/commafeed-server/src/main/java/com/commafeed/backend/favicon/YoutubeFaviconFetcher.java
index 8007d427..ee9e1ed9 100644
--- a/commafeed-server/src/main/java/com/commafeed/backend/favicon/YoutubeFaviconFetcher.java
+++ b/commafeed-server/src/main/java/com/commafeed/backend/favicon/YoutubeFaviconFetcher.java
@@ -1,12 +1,13 @@
 package com.commafeed.backend.favicon;
 
 import java.io.IOException;
-import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;
 import java.util.List;
 import java.util.Optional;
 
-import org.apache.http.NameValuePair;
-import org.apache.http.client.utils.URLEncodedUtils;
+import org.apache.commons.collections4.CollectionUtils;
+import org.apache.commons.collections4.MapUtils;
+import org.apache.hc.core5.http.NameValuePair;
+import org.apache.hc.core5.net.URIBuilder;
 
 import com.commafeed.CommaFeedConfiguration;
 import com.commafeed.backend.HttpGetter;
@@ -52,7 +53,7 @@ public class YoutubeFaviconFetcher extends AbstractFaviconFetcher {
 		byte[] bytes = null;
 		String contentType = null;
 		try {
-			List<NameValuePair> params = URLEncodedUtils.parse(url.substring(url.indexOf("?") + 1), StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
+			List<NameValuePair> params = new URIBuilder(url).getQueryParams();
 			Optional<NameValuePair> userId = params.stream().filter(nvp -> nvp.getName().equalsIgnoreCase("user")).findFirst();
 			Optional<NameValuePair> channelId = params.stream().filter(nvp -> nvp.getName().equalsIgnoreCase("channel_id")).findFirst();
 			Optional<NameValuePair> playlistId = params.stream().filter(nvp -> nvp.getName().equalsIgnoreCase("playlist_id")).findFirst();
@@ -72,11 +73,7 @@ public class YoutubeFaviconFetcher extends AbstractFaviconFetcher {
 				response = fetchForPlaylist(youtube, googleAuthKey, playlistId.get().getValue());
 			}
 
-			if (response == null) {
-				return null;
-			}
-
-			if (response.getItems().isEmpty()) {
+			if (MapUtils.isEmpty(response) || CollectionUtils.isEmpty(response.getItems())) {
 				log.debug("youtube api returned no items");
 				return null;
 			}
diff --git a/commafeed-server/src/main/java/com/commafeed/frontend/resource/UserREST.java b/commafeed-server/src/main/java/com/commafeed/frontend/resource/UserREST.java
index f6094ad4..d47ef4a2 100644
--- a/commafeed-server/src/main/java/com/commafeed/frontend/resource/UserREST.java
+++ b/commafeed-server/src/main/java/com/commafeed/frontend/resource/UserREST.java
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ import org.apache.commons.codec.digest.DigestUtils;
 import org.apache.commons.lang3.RandomStringUtils;
 import org.apache.commons.lang3.StringUtils;
 import org.apache.commons.lang3.time.DateUtils;
-import org.apache.http.client.utils.URIBuilder;
+import org.apache.hc.core5.net.URIBuilder;
 
 import com.codahale.metrics.annotation.Timed;
 import com.commafeed.CommaFeedApplication;