The Tsunami wave of Facebook arrived in Mozambique, contributing at local level to overcome the widespread phenomena people linking access to internet to access to a computer. Since last year the two mobile telecom providers – mCel and Vodacom – advertise their mobile 3G technology linked with the use of Facebook. It also relates to an earlier post Africa: Ranked #2 in mobile subscriptions about internet access in neighbouring South Africa, where a majority of students nowadays access internet via mobile phones.

As an independent centre for ICT research in Mozambique, CONMOZ is also on Facebook. Being on the pulse of young people’s interests and online behaviour is part of local research about information and communication technologies (ICT) in Mozambique. The centre’s “friendship requests” include primarily people that meet the profile of its target groups. Observations following the “news feed” communication between Facebook friends inspired this first rapid research approach within the context of privacy; an issue receiving more attention with the rise of Facebook.

Among the 300 people in my "investigative" Facebook network are several people with more than 1000 friends. It looks like “being part” and “having friends” not only supports the interest of young people to know “what’s up” but also provides a stage to present themselves with less boundaries of real-life constraints. In addition I observed, beside a sense of curiosity, a kind of ignorance about handling and sharing pictures.

Whereas the street photographers still have some business in Beira, many young people own today mobile phones with integrated camera. Paired with instant internet access, Facebook offers solutions that most new members in Mozambique never experienced. Not surprisingly, self portraits taken by mobile phone dominate uploaded pics in the friendship network. During one day of observation (9/02/2012) regarding naked pics on the Facebook friendship network, I registered four shared pics in the category “nude content”. Three of the four uploaded pics were removed within 24 hours from the Facebook news feed.

One “naked pic” was shared 21 times in the first hour after being posted with a tendency that turned from “like it” to more critical comments (20 male/1 female contributions). Another nude image was shared 374 times within the first 23 hours. Beside 188 “like it” clicks, the big majority of comments were critical to negative with a male/female ratio of 5:1.

On the observation day also a Facebook anti-pornography call was posted and received during 6 hours a feedback of 30 “like it” with a male/female ratio of 10:7.

Most likely Facebook will continue to grow in Mozambique, but little is known about online behaviour of young people in the wider context of social, technical, legal and economic aspects. A more scientific approach based on local and regional research is needed to better understand practices and take lessons in the context of ICT4D.