Tim Luke in an article entitled Dealing with the Digital Divide: The Rough Realities of Cyberspace in Telos (2000) says that:

The Net is about digital capitalism. Ordinary access to, and everyday use of the Internet is quite unequal. First, the Internet’s routers, switches, and connections are owned by a few, but sold, leased, or rented to the many. Second, getting into cyberspace for any individual costs a great deal of effort, money, and time. Third, planned and unplanned obsolescence is the essence of cyberspace, so all of these collective infrastructure and individual end user costs have to be paid over and over again simply to maintain functionality. Consequently, inequalities of wealth and differences in status offline are directly translated into tremendous inequities in the online environment.

The rhetoric about the openness and equality of digital society, then, is rather cynical.

Luke ends by saying that:

The politics of networked places and cultures in digital domains are shaped by the answers to one question: “who decides what knowledge is and who knows what needs to be decided? In the computer age, the question of knowledge is now more than ever a question of government.” Whose government, for whom, where, when, and how are all intriguing questions, and their answers are difficult. Power and knowledge mostly flow for the benefit of those few on the upside of the digital divide, as the raw edge of new inequalities trace who wins and loses out along the rippling flows of the Net. While some assert that there are no “haves” and “have-nots” in cyberspace, only the “have-nows” and “have-laters,” not having computers and Net connections closely parallels not enjoying most other types of power, status, and wealth offline. Moreover, the many who do not have most other highly valued goods now are very unlikely to get them later, and this includes the computers and connectivity causing the digital divide to persist.