After the “Open Internet Order” was thrown out earlier this year, the FCC announced a new proposal for enforcing net neutrality. While it still maintains that ISPs cannot discriminate against content, they can “enter into individual negotiations with content providers” to prioritize service, so long as the ISP acts in a “commercially reasonable manner.”
In other words, if passed, an ISP could give preferential treatment to content from companies that agree to pay extra.
Botnets are made up of ordinary computers that have been infected with malware. The owners of these computers might notice unusual slowness or odd behavior, but many don't realize they're infected at all.
When the creator of the botnet sends out an order, all the infected computers act on it. These commands can be anything from sending spam email to generating large amounts of random traffic. Having thousands of computers simultaneously visit a site can cripple it, in what is known as a "DDoS" (Distributed Denial of Service) attack.
