The Fed­er­al Com­mu­nic­a­tions Com­mis­sion plans to move ahead with reg­u­la­tions that would al­low In­ter­net ser­vice pro­viders to charge web­sites for faster ser­vice, ac­cord­ing to an agency of­fi­cial.

Con­sumer ad­vocacy groups slammed the move, warn­ing that the new rules will fun­da­ment­ally al­ter the nature of the In­ter­net and be­ne­fit the largest cor­por­a­tions. The rules would al­low a pro­vider like Com­cast to charge Net­flix or oth­er web­sites spe­cial fees to de­liv­er high-qual­ity video in a “fast lane.”

FCC Chair­man Tom Wheel­er told re­port­ers on Wed­nes­day that he plans to share his pro­pos­al for new net-neut­ral­ity rules with the oth­er FCC com­mis­sion­ers on Thursday. The com­mis­sion will vote on wheth­er to ad­vance the pro­pos­al on May 15.

The FCC ori­gin­ally ad­op­ted net-neut­ral­ity rules in 2010, but a fed­er­al ap­peals court struck those rules down in Janu­ary. The old rules barred In­ter­net pro­viders from block­ing web­sites or dis­crim­in­at­ing against any In­ter­net traffic.

The agency of­fi­cial fa­mil­i­ar with Wheel­er’s pro­pos­al said the up­dated ver­sion will re­tain the ban on block­ing. But in­stead of the dis­crim­in­a­tion ban, the new rules will al­low In­ter­net pro­viders to of­fer web­sites vary­ing speeds as long as the ar­range­ments are “com­mer­cially reas­on­able.”

“We feel con­fid­ent that we’re in a po­s­i­tion that we are able to ac­com­plish what we’ve been try­ing to ac­com­plish for 10 years,” the of­fi­cial said, re­fer­ring to the first time the FCC tried to po­lice how In­ter­net ser­vice pro­viders of­fer ac­cess to web­sites.

But Free Press Pres­id­ent Craig Aaron ac­cused the FCC of “aid­ing and abet­ting the largest ISPs in their ef­forts to des­troy the open In­ter­net.”

“This is not net neut­ral­ity. It’s an in­sult to those who care about pre­serving the open In­ter­net to pre­tend oth­er­wise,” Aaron said.

Mi­chael Wein­berg, a vice pres­id­ent at Pub­lic Know­ledge, warned that the “com­mer­cially reas­on­able” stand­ard would al­low ISPs to “pick win­ners and losers on­line.”

The con­sumer ad­vocacy groups fear that small web­sites will be un­able to pay the spe­cial fees, dis­tort­ing the In­ter­net in fa­vor of the largest sites.

Wheel­er is­sued a state­ment late Wed­nes­day to try to ease the grow­ing out­rage over the pro­pos­al. He said that any re­ports that the FCC is “gut­ting” the net neut­ral­ity rules are “flat out wrong.”

“To­mor­row we will cir­cu­late to the Com­mis­sion a new Open In­ter­net pro­pos­al that will re­store the con­cepts of net neut­ral­ity con­sist­ent with the court’s rul­ing in Janu­ary,” he said.

“There is no ‘turn­around in policy.’ The same rules will ap­ply to all In­ter­net con­tent. As with the ori­gin­al Open In­ter­net rules, and con­sist­ent with the court’s de­cision, be­ha­vi­or that harms con­sumers or com­pet­i­tion will not be per­mit­ted.”

The pub­lic will have a chance to com­ment on the new pro­pos­al be­fore it is fi­nal­ized.

— This post was up­dated with a state­ment from Wheel­er at 11:17 p.m.