Speaking into the system: Social media and many-to-one communication

Social media have been associated with the coming of many-to-many forms of communication, but they also depend on many-to-one communication: bit trails or metadata that the users of digital media leave behind and which serve to structure future communications. Departing from a communicative rather than a technical understanding of metadata, this article discusses the place of many-to-one communication in the modus operandi of social media. Speaking into the system, users engage with media that are social in distinctive ways and, thus, participate in the structuration of particular forms of society, with or without their knowledge and consent. The rights and responsibilities of the users of social media can be addressed with reference to a principle of habeas data, which complements both habeas corpus and the classic freedoms of expression and access to information.