Social identity theory suggests that identity recognition and biased inference facilitate negative assessments of the out-group. The END framework argues this judgment is channeled to the most observable facet of citizenship on the Facebook site: political competence, or the way citizens acquire and process information to form and express their opinions. People do in fact negatively judge the out-group on their political competence, reporting that hypothetical out-party Facebook users are ill-informed. Contrary to the idea that increased social contact should reduce antipathy toward an out-group, users harshly judge the knowledge levels and source credibility of their out-partisan friends and family. This implies that not only do people end up situated in echo chambers, but they might refuse to acknowledge the merits of voices coming from outside. Facebook users believe information processing stereotypes better characterize members of the out-party than do non-Facebook users. Increased usage of the site exacerbates this belief. Moreover, it disposes people toward recognizing differences in the composition of each party and makes people more likely to say they prefer like-minded friends. Facebook users reinforce this social gulf by pruning their social networks to limit future exposure to the out-group.