Inequalities have been the unwanted companion of media and communications since public communications emerged. Traditional mass media were criticized for creating inequalities by being biased, serving hegemonic interests, accumulating far too much power in the hands of mighty industrial conglomerates and creating knowledge gaps among their various audiences. Journalism contributed to gender and race discrimination in news rooms and to accepting informal news selection rules in favour of those in power, thereby dwarfing their watchdog role in democracies. Under the digital regime, which evolved around the establishment of the Internet as the core distribution platform in the late 1990s, most of these inequalities survived and new ones occurred. Knowledge gaps have transformed into digital divides, advertising revenues have migrated to social networking sites, which challenge traditional news journalism, and global corporate monopolies outperform media companies and nation state media regulation alike. In addition, algorithmic selection, surveillance, big data and the Internet of Things are creating new forms of inequality that follow the traditional patterns of class, gender, wealth and education.