The practice of creating and perpetuating inequities between already marginalized groups, specifically through the use of digital technologies and content, and the internet.
Deeper dive
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation defines this as “major network providers systematically excluding low-income neighborhoods from broadband service, deploying only sub-standard, low-speed home internet.” Privacy scholar Chris Gilliard, a professor at Macomb Community College in Michigan, defines this as “the creation and maintenance of tech practices, policies, pedagogies, and investment decisions that enforce class boundaries and discriminate against specific groups.”
The concept can be considered a modern extension of the practice of redlining in housing discrimination, in which red lines were drawn on maps to indicate poor, primarily underserved neighborhoods often due to race or ethnicity deemed unsuitable for loans or further development. The digital divide is seen as one impact of digital redlining.