Critique becomes risky when it is implicit. In a historical perspective and
following the etymological roots, the paper conceptualizes different modes of critique
and makes their epistemological foundations explicit. The idea of a critique of data
was for the first time presented by Agentur Bilwet and Frank Hartmann in the
1990s. Following these traces, the article explores how Michel Foucaults genealogical
model of critique can be applied to the objects of data-critique. Consequently, it asks
how critique itself can be accomplished by data, how we can judge on the given, and
finally, what all this means for media studies.