"Citizens are entitled to know what other agents do with our personal data and to participate in the process of its diffusion. A citizens' movement is necessary to fight for these rights", or so Ramon Reichert, a professor at the University of Vienna, argued in relation to big data. Professor Reichert was one of the speakers at DiscourseNet17, an international conference organized by the Public Discourse project of the Institute for Culture and Society (ICS) at the University of Navarra in conjunction with the international network DiscourseNet.

According to the Austrian specialist, the social network revolution "can become a problem if we only take into account the visible part of networks (i.e., the front end). We do not think of the back end, the information space found behind an interface."

Reichert argues that it is essential to "always consider the symmetrical relationship between the two" and therefore proposed a political intervention to legislate the back end. "It is important that each individual create his/her own sphere of data", he claimed.

Regarding the role of social networks, he maintained that they have brought "some democratization of power" since they have allowed citizens from all walks of life to publish content and raise their voices. He also stressed the importance of feedback, which in his opinion "can be very powerful."

Researchers from about 20 countries

Along these lines, he recalled that networks are "an open space where everyone can see how we communicate, including the state, the police, etc". Thus, he warned that, "in the future, communication through social networks may be highly controlled by forces that do not take into account a society's political freedom."

Ramon Reichert is a professor of New Media and Digital Culture Studies at the Department of Theatre, Film and Media Studies of the University of Vienna (Austria). In addition, he is the creator and editor-in-chief of the Social Media Studies research network, which has more than 1,100 members, and has established a forum for the study of digital research methods in social media.

Reichert made these remarks at DiscourseNet 17, a conference held March 16-18, 2016. It was a meeting place for researchers from about 20 countries concerned both with the role of reflexivity and criticism within discourse studies and the role they play in various social realities.