Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine issued the following statement slamming Thursday’s vote by the FCC to repeal net neutrality:

“Moments ago, the five members of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted to repeal net neutrality. Let’s talk about what that means: Many of our modern systems and institutions — including commerce, education, and more — rely on a free and open Internet. And that freedom and openness is what net neutrality has ensured. Net neutrality means that Internet service providers can’t speed up certain content that makes them more money or aligns with their politics — and they also can’t slow down content that is less lucrative or that they just plain don’t like.  It’s the basis for fairness on the Internet. But now that era of fairness is over. This is extremely troubling.

“One thing I’ve been digging into: What does the end of net neutrality actually mean for people like you and me? For one thing, it allows service providers to charge more for certain services — for example, they could put all the offerings of the Internet, like video streaming sites and social media, up on a cutting board, and slice them into separate packages — and then charge consumers more if they want to buy both.

“The end of net neutrality could also allow those big companies to censor what we see and do online by slowing down certain content. And disturbingly, it could mean that marginalized communities — that already have limited Internet access — could have even less access. I don’t want corporations controlling what I can access online.”