Two senators — one Republican and one Democratic — said their identities were stolen to write fake comments to the Federal Communications Commission ahead of the agency's vote last year to dismantle net neutrality rules.

Sens. Patrick J. Toomey (R-Pa.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) claim they were among millions of Americans who were impersonated in public comments to fraudulently skew the agency's policymaking process. The lawmakers urged FCC Chairman Ajit Pai in a letter sent this week to identify the people behind the impersonations and to take steps to prevent such activity in the future.

Net neutrality has been one of the most fiercely debated tech issues. The rules that were repealed required Internet providers to treat all websites equally, regardless of their size or content. Public input plays an important role at the FCC, which typically solicits feedback before it votes to make significant policy changes. In the run-up to the FCC's vote, agency critics raised alarms that the public commenting system was tainted with thousands of computer generated submissions and fake comments written by people or entities pretending to be U.S. citizens.