def extract_file_contents(filename):
    """ The first step in importing, takes a file and converts to
        a string.
    """
    disavow_contents = ''
    with open(filename, 'r') as disavow_file:
        file_contents = disavow_file.read()
        try:
            disavow_contents = file_contents.decode('utf-8-sig')
        except UnicodeDecodeError:
            disavow_contents = file_contents.decode('utf-16')
    return disavow_contents
