Earlier this month, Bloomberg broke the news that Comcast made a deal to acquire Time Warner Cable for about $45 billion in stock.

This team-up will screw over millions of people in more ways than one. Normally, I don’t see any problems with business like this, but if you take a closer look you will find a lot of skeletons in the closet.

The biggest issue I have with this merger is its effect on net neutrality.

In the past, the FCC used to be able to block companies from piecing out the internet to their customers. That is why we never had to pay for packages like we currently do with cable TV. Unfortunately, the FCC’s power to stop this from happening was recently struck down in court. This is terrible for subscribers to Time Warner Cable and Comcast.

With no watchful oversight from the federal government, there isn’t much that can stop this new company from slowing or outright restricting subscriber access to certain parts of the internet.

Keep in mind that Comcast also owns NBC. If Comcast wanted to, they could possibly slow access to competing websites for CBS and ABC.

This sort of thing is wrong, anti-democratic and gravely dangerous. No company should have that much power over the thoughts of their customers.

In addition to the disturbing implications this merger has on the personal choices of its customers, people also need to be made aware of past indiscretions from Comcast.

In the last few years, several horrible stories have been reported about the company.

Philly.com reported that in 2011, a Comcast employee in the Seattle area cut off funding to a nonprofit after seeing a negative tweet they posted about the company.

In 2008, a Comcast customer received a $931 bill for equipment that was damaged by Hurricane Ike, according to ABC News.

By far, the worst Comcastrophe was in 2005.

An article by The Washington Post reported that when a customer in the state of Illinois complained about some problems she was having with her service, the bill that came next month had the words “Bitch Dog” written on it instead of her name.

This is not a joke or satirical story from The Onion. Sadly enough, this issue is real and from an actual American corporation.

After digging into the issues surrounding this business development, I would hope no sane person would still want this merger to be approved by the FCC.

A company with customer service this awful should not be able to buy another company. Too many Americans will be cheated in an environment where net neutrality is sharply curtailed.

–Evan Pretzer is a junior communication major from from Weyburn, Saskatchewan. He can be contacted at 335-2290 or by [email protected]. The opinions expressed in this column are not necessarily those of the staff of The Daily Evergreen or those of Student Publications.