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The Preferential Option for the Poor: A Theological Contribution to Cyber Ethics
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Description: This paper will argue that the theological concept of the option for the poor is a crucial contribution of theology to the emerging field of cyber ethics. The option for the poor, rooted in liberation theology and Catholic social teaching, does not simply mean that the rich have a responsibility for the poor, or that the powerful have a responsibility toward the marginalized. Rather, it means that we must uncover the social structures that create poverty and marginalization and opt for the poor by seeking to upend or transform those structures to overcome marginalization and promote human flourishing. The option for the poor provides a theological and ethical lens for examining how internet and digital technology reinforces existing unequal social structures and creates new ones. Although internet technology has been used in innovative ways to lift up the poor, such as administering microfinance loans or cash transfers through mobile phones, the increased use of digital technology without democratic accountability also increases the vulnerability of the poor to surveillance and control by both governments and private enterprises. Activists around the world have used social media to organize and inform the public, governments have also used social media and digital surveillance to harass and intimidate activists such as Black Lives Matter protesters, the Standing Rock water protectors, and immigrant rights movements. The paper will examine these and other examples of how the theological concept of the option for the poor can add to our understanding of the ethics of digital technology.