Deranking with broken links

Let's talk theoretically for a minute...

If a site is ranking #3 and has a lot of outbound links, what would happen if most of all of those OBL's suddenly went to dead sites? For example, a competitor posts a bunch of links to your social media accounts and then you delete all of those accounts, would that page still rank?

In theory I could see it going both ways.

1. Google thinks the site is less relevant because all of the OBL's are to dead/broken links.

2. Google doesn't care, the site stays relevant and ranking well.

What do you think? Have you ever given that any thought?

Logically, I think that would tank the rankings. Same goes for PBN's links when sellers let go of the domain.. You lose the power of your link. Just a theory here. But it would be common sense.

Definitely makes sense. It would be difficult to test. Anyone else have any thoughts?

Very good question! Anyone have any test cases on this?