The odds in stumbling over extremist material in the internet are high. Counter speech videos, such as
those of the German campaign Begriffswelten Islam (Concepts of Islam; Bundeszentrale für politische
Bildung, 2015a) published on YouTube, offer alternative perspectives and democratic ideas to
counteract extremist content. YouTube users may discuss these videos in the comment sections below
the video. Yet, it remains open which topics these users bring up in their comments. Moreover, it is
unknown how far user comments in this context may promote hate speech—the very opposite of what
counter speeches intent to evoke. By applying a qualitative content analysis on a randomly selected
sample of user comments, which appeared beneath the counter speech videos of Concepts of Islam, we
found that comments dominated, which dealt with devaluating prejudices and stereotypes towards
Muslims and/or Islam. However, we also discovered that users in a large scale discussed the content of
the videos. Moreover, we identified user comments, which hint at hateful speech either in comments
themselves or the discourse the comments are embedded in. Based on these results, we discuss
implications for researchers, practitioners and security agencies.