Meta · User fetches
What is facebookexternalhit?
Fetches pages to build link previews when someone shares a URL in Meta's apps.
- robots.txt token
facebookexternalhit- Operator
- Meta
- Purpose
- User fetches
- Obeys robots.txt
- No The operator says robots.txt may not apply, or community reports say it ignores it.
- Documented by operator
- Yes, on the operator's own pages.
- Documentation
- developers.facebook.com
Meta says it may bypass robots.txt for integrity and security checks.
Block facebookexternalhit from your whole site
User-agent: facebookexternalhit
Disallow: /
Allow it, but keep private paths out
User-agent: facebookexternalhit
Allow: /
Disallow: /admin/
This bot fetches pages for a person, or for an agent acting on one's behalf. Several operators say robots.txt may not apply to such requests, so check the line above and enforce at your firewall if it matters.
Other bots from Meta
Add it to a robots.txt in the generator →