dslreports logo
 story category
Charter Grabs Anti-Merger Group's Twitter Handle, Mocks Them

Charter this week admitted the company swooped in and "stole" a Twitter handle tied to a group opposing the company's merger, and used it to Tweet support for the merger. The unusual admission was made to Politico, which notes that Charter snagged the @stopmegacable Twitter handle before the recently formed merger opposition Stop Mega Cable coalition could get a hold of it. Coalition members include consumer advocacy group Public Knowledge, Dish, and a number of telco competitors like Cincinnati Bell and Fairpoint.

Click for full size
Once obtained, Charter used the handle to insist the deal would be a great boon to consumers and make fun of Dish Network.

One Tweet directs readers to an positive trade magazine article that highlights Netflix's support of the merger. Another directs Twitter followers to a report highlighting the fact that Dish is one of the worst companies to work for in the country.

"Using @stopmegacable was meant in jest," the company says. "We thought that pointing out that a ‘coalition’ that hadn’t even secured a Twitter handle would be the best evidence that it is little more than a shill for the business interests of DISH Network."

Apparently, the coalition of companies fighting the merger didn't think it was funny.

"Charter’s attempt to frame this as a joke is, itself, laughable," said the group. "Not one of their tweets read as humorous; all deceive people into clicking on pro-merger links,” the coalition said in a statement. “Those kind of social media shenanigans may be par for the course in no-holds-barred cage-match political campaigns, but they have no place in a serious regulatory review process aimed at upholding the public interest.”

It's an amusing chapter in a merger battle that's likely to end with regulatory approval. While Charter's customer support scores and user satisfaction rankings are about as bad as Comcast's, the company has generally avoided the same level of negative media coverage Comcast enjoyed. That means less political pressure to have the deal blocked, even if the "mega merger" -- like most mega mergers -- likely only stands to benefit the companies merging.
view:
topics flat nest 

PhoenixDown
FIOS is Awesome
Premium Member
join:2003-06-08
Fresh Meadows, NY

-1 recommendation

PhoenixDown

Premium Member

Charter wins round 1!

I at least found that funny

GlennLouEarl
3 brothers, 1 gone
Premium Member
join:2002-11-17
Richmond, VA

1 recommendation

GlennLouEarl

Premium Member

Re: Charter wins round 1!

Ha-ha. Well, if and when the merger breaks down, they'll be able to look back at this moment and realize that this was when it all turned against them (and the fact that their lobbyists didn't grease enough hands).

Gary
@199.241.26.x

-3 recommendations

Gary

Anon

Re: Charter wins round 1!

Wouldn't this be a violation of one of the new laws to prosecute online "hacking"? Shouldn't the DOJ be going after them?

hobgoblin
Sortof Agoblin
Premium Member
join:2001-11-25
Orchard Park, NY

4 recommendations

hobgoblin

Premium Member

Re: Charter wins round 1!

said by Gary :

Wouldn't this be a violation of one of the new laws to prosecute online "hacking"? Shouldn't the DOJ be going after them?

With no smiley face I can only assume you are serious. How is picking a twitter name hacking?

SMH

Hob
kherr
Premium Member
join:2000-09-04
Collinsville, IL

kherr to Gary

Premium Member

to Gary
said by Gary :

Wouldn't this be a violation of one of the new laws to prosecute online "hacking"? Shouldn't the DOJ be going after them?

I'm sure the DOJ has better things to do than investigate a perfectly legit post on Twitter. To me they should be looking at M$ for what is truly 'hacking' with Windows 10 and now 7. 8. 8.1 ... Not to mention theft of bandwidth in said 'hacking' and using consumers internet to spread their 'virus' ...

belawrence
They'll never let you in
join:2000-08-06
Santee, CA
ARRIS WBM760
(Software) pfSense
Ubiquiti UniFi AP

1 recommendation

belawrence

Member

Re: Charter wins round 1!

citation, please - and no links to that debunked Forbes article or Slashdot which obviously has an anti-MS slant. After running Wireshark on my own network, I found out my Android phone was sending more to Google than my four Windows boxes were sending to MS - combined!!!
iwinrar
join:2010-03-18

iwinrar to kherr

Member

to kherr
Windows 10 is actually good so less likely to be an issue. If this was a vista I'm sure people would be lining around the block.
TheRogueX
join:2003-03-26
Springfield, MO

TheRogueX to kherr

Member

to kherr
said by kherr:

o me they should be looking at M$ for what is truly 'hacking' with Windows 10 and now 7. 8. 8.1 ... Not to mention theft of bandwidth in said 'hacking' and using consumers internet to spread their 'virus' ...

How does your tinfoil hat fit? Maybe a little too tight?

rb
@bhn.net

rb to PhoenixDown

Anon

to PhoenixDown
Here's a quote "Despite not faring much better than Comcast in most satisfaction and support studies, Charter's merger has only seen a fraction of the public backlash the Comcast merger did. As a result regulators aren't seeing as much political pressure to block the deal, which is expected to be approved over the next few months with the usual assortment of paper-mache grade conditions and commitments."

I do wonder why this is so, I have filed my words not to allow the Merger of Charter, TWC and BHN at the FCC's Website. No matter how you look at this, less completion always equates to higher pricing for the consumer.

More people if they are against making Charter a Mega Cable company.....controlling a large Market share of Cable....need to speak out and have their Voice heard because as it appears now....since there hasn't been the outcry as was the Case with the Comcast Merger...that at the end forced Comcast to withdrawn the Merger, rather than be told it wasn't going to be approved, this Charter\TWC and BHN looks like it will be approved. But Charter thought their Merger would be approved, and it wasn't until it got close to the date of approval did that opinion reverse itself. Please let your Voice be Heard.
dutenhnj
join:2002-01-29
Monroe, WI

4 recommendations

dutenhnj

Member

Re: Charter wins round 1!

Charter is the current cable monopoly in my town, if they are allowed to merge with Time Warner Cable they will...still be the current cable monopoly in my town. I fail to see how this merger reduces competition, since none exists to begin with. Divide by zero and all that. I say let them all merge into one giant mega cable corp which will make it a lot harder for them to continue buying congress the idea that there is healthy competition. Then maybe we will be able to restore the forced Local-loop unbundling under Title II that would actually create some small level of meaningful competition.
etaadmin
join:2002-01-17
united state

2 recommendations

etaadmin

Member

Re: Charter wins round 1!

Which is your current telco monopoly in your town... at&t? I bet at&t doesn't compete with anybody else.
dutenhnj
join:2002-01-29
Monroe, WI

2 recommendations

dutenhnj

Member

Re: Charter wins round 1!

When the local telephone monopoly (TDS) dug up all the copper and instead put FTTH everywhere in town, Charter definitely increased their advertising budget, but that is all they did.

Lots of papers in the mail from Charter talking about how great they are, not much in the way of actually offering a product that competes on price/performance/reliability. The fiber costs about the same, caps off at 10 times faster with an upload that is 100 times faster, and the line quality doesn't change with the outside temperature like the coax did.

Needless to say, the phone company ended up with a 3 month queue of installs to run, and the Charter vans were also very busy disconnecting half the town.
chrismitt
join:2012-07-09
Orange, CA

1 recommendation

chrismitt

Member

Re: Charter wins round 1!

That's what they get for no t competing :d

hobgoblin
Sortof Agoblin
Premium Member
join:2001-11-25
Orchard Park, NY

hobgoblin

Premium Member

Re: Charter wins round 1!

said by chrismitt:

That's what they get for no t competing :d

Why would they compete, they are a monopoly remember!

Hob
hobgoblin

-1 recommendation

hobgoblin to dutenhnj

Premium Member

to dutenhnj
said by dutenhnj:

Charter is the current cable monopoly in my town

said by dutenhnj:

When the local telephone monopoly (TDS) dug up all the copper and instead put FTTH everywhere in town

So you have two companies providing the same services and they are both monopolies? Confused.

Hob
dutenhnj
join:2002-01-29
Monroe, WI

2 recommendations

dutenhnj

Member

Re: Charter wins round 1!

Cable company has a monopoly on the cable lines.
Phone company has a monopoly on the phone lines.
Neither one competes on price (unless you count dueling rate hikes as competition), or really even acknowledges the existence of the other. They look like monopolies, they act like monopolies... What else would you call them? I think duopoly is a popular word around here, but it basically means the same thing.

hobgoblin
Sortof Agoblin
Premium Member
join:2001-11-25
Orchard Park, NY

-1 recommendation

hobgoblin

Premium Member

Re: Charter wins round 1!

said by dutenhnj:

Cable company has a monopoly on the cable lines.

said by dutenhnj:

Phone company has a monopoly on the phone lines.

But they both provide the same services and compete with the satellite companies that provide TV. Feel free to start a company any give them some more competition.

Hob
said by dutenhnj:

Neither one competes on price (unless you count dueling rate hikes as competition), or really even acknowledges the existence of the other.

Maybe there is a price point for both for them to exist as companies.

Hob

JavierN
@rr.com

JavierN to dutenhnj

Anon

to dutenhnj
It does remove competition. Currently if you live in Southern California, all you had to do was move to a city not served by Charter. see competition is there, you just have to move or subscribe to earthlink(the CLEC of TWC and Charter cable systems) /s
TheRogueX
join:2003-03-26
Springfield, MO

TheRogueX to dutenhnj

Member

to dutenhnj
It doesn't matter if it doesn't change anything in your particular town, it shouldn't be allowed. However, I do agree that letting them grow too big might actually cause the Divestiture of the 1980s to occur again.
Jazzemt
join:2009-02-12
USA

Jazzemt to dutenhnj

Member

to dutenhnj
Interesting idea about the local loop unbundling. Too bad there are no local loops with cable. Telco yes, there are actual loops.

why60loss
Premium Member
join:2012-09-20

why60loss

Premium Member

Very funny Charter or should I say heading for default cable

Charter will be $30 billion in the hole after this deal and will hope the fact they bleed money every month will be fixed by the profits of those it is merging with.

I would laugh till I had a heart attack if they came back in 2017 or 2018 asking for a government hand out to be turned down by what will likely be a reality TV POTUS. Yes I think the black mirror episode "The Waldo Moment" is unfolding right now in the guy named trump. (Not a bad darker angle on the twilight zone in my opinion by the way.)

If I am wrong about the post merger balance sheet then that is okay, in fact that would be better than worrying about who would then manage the network next.

For better or worse we are getting a second Comcast. Just when I start liking TWC is when they find an exit. Oh well it's something the shareholders have clearly wanted for many years now.

battleop
join:2005-09-28
00000

battleop

Member

So let me get this right.

The anti merger group that's backed by their competitor is pissed because Chartet beat them to the punch on a Twitter account where they planned to do the exact same thing Chartet did?