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We consider triad dynamics as it was recently considered by Antal [Phys. Rev. E 72, 036121 (2005)] as an approach to social balance. Here we generalize the topology from all-to-all to the regular one of a two-dimensional triangular lattice. The driving force in this dynamics is the reduction of frustrated triads in order to reach a balanced state. The dynamics is parametrized by a so-called propensity parameter that determines the tendency of negative links to become positive. As a function of we find a phase transition between different kinds of absorbing states. The phases differ by the existence of an infinitely connected (percolated) cluster of negative links that forms whenever . Moreover, for , the time to reach the absorbing state grows powerlike with the system size , while it increases logarithmically with for . From a finite-size scaling analysis we numerically determine the static critical exponents and together with …