The Disabled Body Under Surveillance Capitalism Tony Tulathimutte’s Private Citizens

In the twenty-first century, online platforms have become apparatuses for the automated monitoring and interpretation of bodies as user data to produce convincing predictive advertising products. The emergence of this ‘surveillance capitalist’ system is represented in Tony Tulathimutte’s 2016 novel Private Citizens. Vanya is a paraplegic Silicon Valley entrepreneur who launches an ill-fated online platform named ‘Sable’ to challenge ablest stereotypes with content that centres the experiences of people with impairments. However, Vanya’s desire for inclusion and visibility becomes transformed by the economic imperatives underpinning the platform into forms of surveillance directed at herself and her disabled audience. Despite its attention to the subtleties of ableism in surveillance capitalism, this article argues that structurally similar practices of disability surveillance exist within Private Citizens. The article proposes that this novel reproduces normative interpretations of the disabled body as source material for metaphors to elaborate themes of authenticity, work and self-presentation under surveillance capitalism.