Google, Netflix, Yahoo, and many more may be coming back to the battlefield to fight what some journalists are calling “the death of the internet as we known it.”

The Federal Communications Commission, or FCC, is proposing a new set of rules on the May 15 permitting what they call an internet “Fast Lane.”

The FCC claims the purpose of this is for the benefit of everyone: data consuming companies like Netflix and Google can pay a hefty sum in order to achieve faster internet speeds, meaning that your House of Cards stream can come in faster and cleaner than ever.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler also claims that “the focus of this proposal is on maintaining a broadly available, fast and robust Internet as a platform for economic growth, innovation, competition, free expression, and broadband investment and deployment.”

However, the primary issue that internet activists have is the vague wording of the bill, allowing “commercially reasonable” regulation of web traffic.

This violates a core principle of the web known as Net Neutrality: the principle that Internet Service Providers, or ISP’s, must treat all web traffic equally.

Moreover, it has the potential to allow the internet to go from being the free and open forum it is now into something controlled by corporations.

Pumping more bandwidth into high paying companies means other businesses will suffer a cutback in the speeds they have available, which could affect performance.

For example, if YouTube were to pay and secure twice the bandwidth they have now, users could theoretically be able to stream full 1080p video with almost no buffering, a huge win for them. But then if competitor DailyMotion can’t afford the benefit, they will lose a lot of customers to YouTube’s faster speeds.

As a result, YouTube could establish a monopoly on the home video streaming industry, and if they, for example, made a Google+ account a requirement in order to watch videos, users would have no other options to go to.

As lawyer Marvin Ammori put it, “the proposal would drive a knife in the heart of American innovation because startups can’t afford to pay Verizon (and then AT&T, then Cox, etc.) for fast lanes to compete with existing Web giants.”

This is the primary reason why internet activists are calling foul. The idea of faster internet and better streaming is a great one, but if business startups will suffer as a result, it makes for an internet dominated by corporations.

Not surprisingly, many corporations are opposed to this, as the idea of potentially having to pay millions more in order to stay in business is not appealing to them.

Que the Big Data Badies stepping in. While the heavy hitters have yet to officially comment on the issue, “officials inside the companies who follow government policy say they are considering mobilizing a grass-roots campaign to rally public opinion around the idea that the Internet’s pipes should be equally open for all,” reports BGR.

This could be huge news. Watchdog groups and activists have been trying to rally the support of the public, but the complicated nature of this issue for non-techies has so far prevented them from gaining any large support.

Back in the 2012 fight against the controversial SOPA and PIPA acts, we saw a similar situation. But after many major corporations took place in an internet “blackout day,” the bills quickly fell to the sudden uproar of millions of internet users.

Something similar to that happening here could be massive for protecting the web against a potentially dark future. And make no mistake: if the internet fails to rise up the future is bleak indeed.

This proposal is only the first step in what could be many more bills to come. It’s not unfeasible that eventually ISP’s could secure the ability to block sites entirely and then make things like “internet site packages.” Imagine having to pay for access to sites just like you pay for TV channels. That’s not something out of the question for the FCC.

Watchdog groups are hosting petitions and providing info to contact government officials about this issue. You can find more at http://act.demandprogress.org/sign/fcc_net_neutrality/?source=demandprogress_website, and you can write the FCC directly at openinternet@fcc.gov.

Activists argue that this fight is bigger than just Netflix or Hulu Plus, it affects the very core of the web and the US economy itself. As President Obama said on the matter, “Preserving an Open Internet is vital not just to the free flow of information, but also to promoting innovation and economic productivity.”