By Anna Naupa with contributions by Nick Howlett

“Please circulate amongst your networks,” said an email sent to 50 people on a Futunese email group, which was then sent to a further 100 recipients on a Tafea youth group email list, another 30 on a Tafea Women’s Group email list and over 300 friends on the Tafea Facebook page, which is linked to other Vanuatu-based Facebook pages. This domino effect means that this message was received by at least 2,500 people, or close to 1% of Vanuatu’s population, within a few hours of being sent.

Online social networking in Vanuatu has taken off despite internet access being limited to 8% of the population[1], of which 38% use Facebook[2]. In the last six months alone, over 1,000 new users from Vanuatu have joined Facebook. Currently, less than 3% of Vanuatu’s population, or 6,560 people, use Facebook; 63% of these are aged 18-34 years. But this influential part of the population is actively engaged in sharing ideas about development issues in Vanuatu. Internet access remains the territory of a growing, mostly urban middle class that is educated, knowledgeable and has the resources to regularly participate in online discussion forums. Issues-based coalitions are increasingly using social networks to influence opinion and shape political change.

The ‘Vanuatu Spotlight 2011’ Facebook group was set up by a local businessman and journalist in April this year, to host discussion of significant issues facing Vanuatu. Within its first week, it had over 200 members and today has almost 600 members. ‘Friends’ of the page regularly post comments on the hot topic of the day. Similarly, the ‘Youth Against Corruptions’ (sic) Facebook page, created by Joel Kalpram, Leinasei Simon and Alcina Charlie, quickly grew to 650 members and continues to grow about 2 members per day. Pages such as these serve as a barometer of our collective interests and priorities; online debate on popular topics sometimes lasts for over a week.

Vanuatu-oriented social networking pages focus on matters of sovereignty, politics, corruption, employment, education and development issues like urbanisation, crime and substance abuse, to name a few. There are also alumni-based, island-based or province-based groups coalescing around shared development interests. Even high school alumni pages address development issues for schools and attempt to rally support for fundraising. Members are primarily urban-based ni-Vanuatu and long-term expatriate residents, as well as ni-Vanuatu working or studying overseas.

The increasing reach of information technology and the rise of social media have clearly activated a desire for more political debate in Vanuatu. Online discussion groups are highly critical of corrupt leaders and political nepotism, questioning many of the decisions made by Vanuatu’s politicians. But are Vanuatu’s leaders taking note? Some seem to be, although not in a manner that is compatible with this desire for online freedom of expression[3]. While we are fortunate in Vanuatu that the potential repercussions of expressing an opinion on a social network are far less severe than under Fiji’s repressive regime, recent reactions by some leaders are enough for some in the media to exercise some measure of self-censorship[4]. Within the national print media, letters to the editor are regularly signed with pseudonyms like ‘Concerned Citizen,’ ‘Manples,’ or ‘Indigenous Citizen’.

Online, however, unless you’ve created a pseudonym (and many don’t on platforms like Facebook), it is difficult to hide your identity[5]. Less regular ‘posters’ may choose to ‘like’ others’ comments to show support for a particular view, instead of exposing themselves to criticism by contributing.

The rise in social networking use signals a growing freedom of expression in Vanuatu. But do online demands for greater political and development reforms translate into social change? The answer hinges on getting those viewpoints through to the rest of the population and those in a position to make change.

While an influential 8% may have access to critical information and debate and are guiding social change, the remaining 92% need much greater access to the same social networks to give them a voice in the debate.

Feeding the online debates to the rest of the population, via print and broadcast media is critical if we are to translate the desire for reform into action.

Expanding the vibrant and frank online discussion forums towards a political outcome is only one challenge. For most Vanuatu politicians today, there is little to be gained by having an active online profile, especially if your electorate is mostly functionally illiterate and without internet access. An online search of current Vanuatu MPs revealed that only 2 out of 52[6] have a Facebook profile. Given that 75% of voters are rural, with limited access to the internet, online interaction with leaders may seem irrelevant to most. But with the expansion of mobile telephony, combined with the increasing ability for internet access through mobile phones, and the new e-Government network, the potential reach of social media networks in Vanuatu is huge.

Within the next few years, two developments in Vanuatu’s telecommunications infrastructure may bring the potential for a massive expansion of online participation in political debate.

The first of these is an undersea fibre-optic cable which will link Vanuatu to either Fiji or New Caledonia (or possibly both), connecting Vanuatu to the rest of the global terrestrial fibre-optic network. This will increase the amount of bandwidth and the speed of our internet, allowing Vanuatu’s internet users to use web technologies such as streaming video, that our current satellite-based internet connection does not handle well. The undersea cable will also mean a fall in the cost of broadband internet, the lower price making internet access affordable to a whole new set of users.

The other imminent change, that may be even more critical for the wider population, is the introduction of 3G cellular networks. A 3G network allows the use of internet, video and even TV over a mobile network (in addition to voice calls and SMS) at speeds far above what is possible with the current 2G network. Potentially, this could mean that a rural user could access email, browse websites and even watch video or TV on their mobile phone. Once both of these enabling technologies are present in Vanuatu’s telecommunications landscape, there is no doubt that social network use will skyrocket, and their use as a means of political expression will become the norm.

So how can we use these vibrant online social networks for positive developmental change in Vanuatu? The first, and major step, has already been taken: groups of individuals with common interests sharing information and discussing important issues with a view to finding solutions — essentially forming online coalitions for change. These online discussions address issues of accountability that the rest of the internet-inaccessible population cannot currently access. Our national consciousness is being played out on social networks — but if these are only 8% of Vanuatu’s population, are their voices an accurate indication of national sentiment, or just the most vocal?

Vanuatu’s independence was won by a handful of visionary ni-Vanuatu who used their social networks throughout our islands to raise collective support for self-government. These nationalists recognised the importance of collective decision-making and consensus. For online debate to translate into real change, Vanuatu’s ‘isolated’ population — left out for too long — need to be brought into the discussion. And that may be about to happen.