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Specifically, it focuses on politically motivated unfriending and examines its influence on individuals\u2019 political engagement, namely political expression and information consumption on social media. Furthermore, considering the importance of minority\u2013majority relations for understanding disconnection phenomena, we investigate whether the impact of unfriending is more pronounced among opinion minorities than majorities. Using a two-wave panel survey conducted in the post-Umbrella Movement Hong Kong, we find that politically motivated unfriending predicts an increased level of political expression, but that it is only significant among people who perceive themselves as holding minority opinions. At the same time, we find no relationship between unfriending and information consumption on social media. Based on the findings, we discuss the implications of unfriending for building digital \u201csafe spaces\u201d and its distinct role in promoting political engagement in times of political conflicts.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1177\/1461444821999994","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,3,11]],"date-time":"2021-03-11T04:13:09Z","timestamp":1615435989000},"page":"2659-2679","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/sage-journals-update-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":33,"title":["Political implications of disconnection on social media: A study of politically motivated unfriending"],"prefix":"10.1177","volume":"24","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8038-0274","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Qinfeng","family":"Zhu","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"University of Groningen, The Netherlands"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6578-9872","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Marko M","family":"Skoric","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"179","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,3,11]]},"reference":[{"key":"e_1_3_3_2_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Backstrom L Boldi P Rosa M et al. 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