Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are tearing Facebook friendships apart

More than 100 million Americans have generated four billion posts, likes, and comments on Facebook about the 2016 presidential campaign, but as almost anyone who has logged onto the social media site in the past year can attest, not all of that has been pretty. While Facebook doesn't keep track of how many people have been unfriended, muted, or otherwise hidden because of political posts, Politico notes that this election in particular has caused rifts in otherwise cordial relationships.

"In a political environment as heated as it is right now, with voters as polarized as they are on the two political parties and the two presidential candidates, it's not surprising that we hear voters talk about unfriending others," Republican pollster Neil Newhouse told Politico.

While data hasn't yet been collected for 2016, during the 2012 election Pew Research Center found that 18 percent of Facebook users had taken advantage of unfriending or muting someone due to political posts; liberals were twice as likely to take the step than moderates or conservatives.

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"I love my uncle, we're family, but this is way bigger than politics or candidates to me," said Democratic consultant Brent Blackaby, who unfriended his conservative uncle and talked about the fallout with Politico (you can see the fight he had with his uncle, Phillip Mullard, here).

"This is about a fundamental disagreement about worldviews, how we treat and respect people, how we honor the political process," Blackaby added.