The Federal Communications Commission’s vote to scrap Obama-era Internet restrictions creates the potential for broadband providers like Comcast and Verizon to divide their networks into fast lanes and slow lanes, throttle rivals’ video-streaming speeds, block content and charge websites simply to reach their customers.

In a 3-2 vote along party lines, the Republican-majority FCC rolled back the 2015 net neutrality rules that placed substantial restrictions on businesses that connect consumers to the Internet. The new regulations will take effect after publication in the Federal Register.

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Net neutrality advocate Ryan Singel, a media and strategy fellow at Stanford Law’s Center for Internet and Society, said the FCC’s dismantling of net neutrality means abandoning its traditional role as the protector of Americans’ right to choose which sites and apps they access.

“The FCC wants to put the greatest free market for innovation and free speech the world has ever seen at risk, simply to let companies like Verizon and Comcast to make more money,” Singel said. “It’s radical, rushed and unpopular across the political spectrum.”