Filters for comrades or enemies: discursive political consumerism and the ambivalent boundaries of “real” Hong Kongers amid democratic backsliding

Over the course of the 2019 Anti-Extradition Bill Movement, movement sympathizers chose to purchase products from yellow retailers (movement supporters) and boycotted those from blue retailers (government supporters). Drawing on posts from a representative Telegram channel, “Human Blood Steamed Buns”—where people report “fake” yellow retailers and accuse them of profiteering from the movement without genuinely caring about politics, this article adopts a relational perspective and examines the content of discursive political consumerism around trust, morality, movement success, and Hong Kong's autonomy. Highlighting the nexus of discursive political consumerism and its normative meanings, this study bridges media studies and political consumerism by showing how lifestyle politics evolves into online debates to remove “fake” Hong Kongers within movement supporters, and what is the most effective way to achieve desired political and economic autonomy amidst democratic backsliding.