From connective to disconnective action: how safety shapes political participation repertoires in instant messaging groups

Safety is a fundamental yet increasingly precarious condition for political participation in an era of democratic backsliding and a hyper-visible digital environment. Often overlooked in political communication, safety is typically framed as an individual problem rather than a structural condition rooted in social and systemic vulnerabilities. This study challenges that assumption by examining how perceived risks of social sanctions and marginalization shape political engagement within Instant Messaging (IM) groups – ubiquitous digital spaces central to everyday political interaction. Using a population-based survey conducted in the Netherlands and a repertoire approach with latent class analysis (LCA), we identify three distinct patterns of participation: Curated Engagement, where individuals actively manage their group environments through disconnection while engaging politically; Conventional Online Engagement, marked by reading, sharing and discussing politics; and Disengaged, characterized by limited political activity. Among them, Curated Engagement emerges as a novel participation repertoire not captured in existing studies. Multinomial regression analysis shows that it is more common among those feeling socially or systemically unsafe, more likely to occur in issue-oriented, weak-tie meso groups, and associated with perceiving IM groups as safe spaces. These findings suggest a shift from ‘connective action’ centred on openness and sharing toward what we term ‘disconnective action’: a more cautious, self-protective mode of participation shaped by safety concerns. By foregrounding safety as a political condition, this study offers a new framework for understanding online political participation and contributes to broader debates on participation and vulnerability in everyday digital contexts.