COLONIALITY OF THE DIGITAL: EPISTEMIC INJUSTICE AND TECHNOLOGICAL POWER IN THE GLOBAL SOUTH
This paper argues that digital inequality in the Global South is not a technical deficit awaiting infrastructural remedy but a philosophically distinct form of injustice. Drawing on decolonial theory, epistemic justice scholarship, and philosophy of technology, the paper establishes that the global digital order reproduces colonial epistemic hierarchies through platform governance, algorithmic design, data extraction, and the structural dominance of Northern languages and knowledge frameworks. Deploying Fricker's (2007) theory of epistemic injustice alongside Couldry and Mejias' (2019) concept of data colonialism, the paper argues that digital inequality inflicts simultaneous testimonial and hermeneutical injustice on Global South communities. It proposes digital epistemic inclusion, algorithmic decolonization, and data sovereignty as normative principles for achieving technological justice, concluding that genuine digital justice demands not merely expanded connectivity but a fundamental decolonization of the epistemic architecture of the global digital order.
Keywords: Coloniality of the digital, Epistemic injustice, Technological power, Data colonialism, Global South, Decolonization.