Speeding up the process of globalization and informatization of the world economy and world society has allowed the World Summit on the Information Society in the early XXI century to proclaim - creating the global information society for all, where everyone can create and use information and knowledge as the goal of the new millennium. However, there are significant differences between countries in the development of information technology - the digital divide. The paper analyses the research of the current stage of creating a global information society, methods of measuring the digital divide, its assessment, opportunities and prospects of developing countries in overcoming it.