The introduction of the World Wide Web in the 1990s brought with it the idea of the digital divide, as the gap between those with access to the Internet and those without became seen as a social problem. In 1995, the newly created National Telecommunications and Information Administration in the United States prepared and released a landmark report entitled Falling Through the Net: A Survey of the “Have Nots” in Rural and Urban America. Since then, the discussion of the inequalities of online access as a new aspect of the larger issues of wealth and poverty in many countries has begun, and the concept of a digital divide becomes a major focus in countries around the world.

The Internet’s enormous potential, not only for capital accumulation ...