This article reflects, from an ethical perspective, on the problem of information poverty. Information poverty is defined as that situation in which individuals and communities, within a given context, do not have the requisite skills, abilities or material means to obtain efficient access to information, interpret it and apply it appropriately. It is further characterized by a lack of essential information and a poorly developed information infrastructure. It is argued in this article that information poverty is a serious moral concern and a matter of social justice and as such should be on the world’s moral agenda of social responsibility. Based on social justice a set of broad ethical principles are formulated that can be used to guide the social, economic and political initiatives to solve information poverty and to create a fair information society.

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Modern information and communication technologies (ICTs) are seen not only as allowing global economicactivities and the sharing of knowledge, but also as favouring transparency and democracy by creating space and a public sphere for civil society. The internet, and in particular the world wide web, have proved a powerful tool in both the manipulation of economic activities and the mobilization of civil society. Much is made of the democratizing effect of ICTs in e-government. Yet there are governments that attempt to control in an authoritarian manner both who accesses the internet and what content may be accessed and used. The question arises whether an information society and, more critically, a knowledge society can develop in the absence of freedom of access to information, freedom of expression and freedom to access the digital economy. Against this broad background the authors put forward four pillars of a knowledge society: (a) ICTs and connectivity, (b) content and the usability thereof, (c) infrastructure other than ICTs, and (d) human capacity. They attempt to evaluate the effect of authoritarian governmental control of access and content on each of them. It is argued from an ethical perspective, and more specifically from a perspective of social justice that, while a technologically oriented concept of the information society may not be incompatible with severe state control, a more multi-dimensional knowledge society cannot develop under such circumstances. Freedom is fundamental to participation in a knowledge society. Purely pragmatic arguments lead to the same conclusion.

This article discusses social justice as a moral norm that can be used to address the ethical challenges facing us in the global Information Society. The global Information Society is seen as a continuation of relationships which have been altered by the use of modern information and communication technologies (ICTs). Four interrelated characteristics of the global Information Society also are identified. After a brief overview of the main socioethical issues facing the global Information Society, the article discusses the application of social justice as a moral tool that has universal moral validity and which can be used to address these ethical challenges. It is illustrated that the scope of justice is no longer limited to domestic issues. Three core principles of justice are furthermore distinguished, and based on these three principles, seven categories of justice are introduced. It is illustrated how these categories of justice can be applied to address the main ethical challenges of the Information Society.