The monstrous-digital: Data necropolitics, social media, and the assassination of Brian Thompson

This research article examines the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and the ensuing social media attention on the alleged shooter Luigi Mangione. I argue that the incident can be read as a cultural moment that captures the essence of an emergent sensibility that I call the “monstrous-digital” because of its layered and complex interconnections with the digital apparatus as a space of control and contestation. Specifically, I connect it to the biopolitical weaponization of computational systems, McQuillan’s (2015) algorithmic states of exception, and Pele and Mulholland’s (2023) data necropolitics. I approach this research using a qualitative case study method, seated within a broader conjunctural analysis of neoliberalism and computational mechanics—a conjunction that is exemplified by the US healthcare sector and the health insurance industry. However, paradoxically, the digital apparatus also fosters subversion and engagement in these political conversations in creative and surprising ways, which suggests that what is monstrous about the digital can also be what is generative and productive about it. As such, I propose the monstrous-digital as a framework that can be used to discuss these divergent modes of experience.