FacebookBot
Meta •
Since 2023
Quick Actions
Official Docs
What is FacebookBot?
FacebookBot is Meta's dedicated web crawler for collecting training data for Meta AI models, including LLaMA. This is distinct from facebookexternalhit, which generates link previews when URLs are shared on Facebook. FacebookBot performs broader web crawling to gather diverse content for AI model training and improvement. It respects robots.txt directives, allowing website owners to opt out of having their content used for Meta's AI training while still allowing link previews via facebookexternalhit.
User Agent String
FacebookBot
How to Control FacebookBot
Block Completely
To prevent FacebookBot from accessing your entire website, add this to your robots.txt file:
# Block FacebookBot
User-agent: FacebookBot
Disallow: /
Block Specific Directories
To restrict access to certain parts of your site while allowing others:
User-agent: FacebookBot
Disallow: /admin/
Disallow: /private/
Disallow: /wp-admin/
Allow: /public/
Set Crawl Delay
To slow down the crawl rate (note: not all bots respect this directive):
User-agent: FacebookBot
Crawl-delay: 10
How to Verify FacebookBot
Verification Method:
Reverse DNS lookup should resolve to facebook.com
Reverse DNS lookup should resolve to facebook.com
Learn more in the official documentation.
⚠️ AI Training Notice
This bot may collect and use your website content for AI model training. Consider whether you want your content used for this purpose before allowing access.
This bot may collect and use your website content for AI model training. Consider whether you want your content used for this purpose before allowing access.
Detection Patterns
Multiple ways to detect FacebookBot in your application:
Basic Pattern
/FacebookBot/iStrict Pattern
/^FacebookBot$/Flexible Pattern
/FacebookBot[\s\/]?[\d\.]*?/iVendor Match
/.*Meta.*FacebookBot/iImplementation Examples
// PHP Detection for FacebookBot
function detect_facebookbot() {
$user_agent = $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'] ?? '';
$pattern = '/FacebookBot/i';
if (preg_match($pattern, $user_agent)) {
// Log the detection
error_log('FacebookBot detected from IP: ' . $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']);
// Set cache headers
header('Cache-Control: public, max-age=3600');
header('X-Robots-Tag: noarchive');
// Optional: Serve cached version
if (file_exists('cache/' . md5($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']) . '.html')) {
readfile('cache/' . md5($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']) . '.html');
exit;
}
return true;
}
return false;
}
# Python/Flask Detection for FacebookBot
import re
from flask import request, make_responsedef detect_facebookbot():
user_agent = request.headers.get('User-Agent', '')
pattern = r'FacebookBot'
if re.search(pattern, user_agent, re.IGNORECASE):
# Create response with caching
response = make_response()
response.headers['Cache-Control'] = 'public, max-age=3600'
response.headers['X-Robots-Tag'] = 'noarchive'
return True
return False# Django Middleware
class FacebookBotMiddleware:
def __init__(self, get_response):
self.get_response = get_response
def __call__(self, request):
if self.detect_bot(request):
# Handle bot traffic
pass
return self.get_response(request)
// JavaScript/Node.js Detection for FacebookBot
const express = require('express');
const app = express();// Middleware to detect FacebookBot
function detectFacebookBot(req, res, next) {
const userAgent = req.headers['user-agent'] || '';
const pattern = /FacebookBot/i;
if (pattern.test(userAgent)) {
// Log bot detection
console.log('FacebookBot detected from IP:', req.ip);
// Set cache headers
res.set({
'Cache-Control': 'public, max-age=3600',
'X-Robots-Tag': 'noarchive'
});
// Mark request as bot
req.isBot = true;
req.botName = 'FacebookBot';
}
next();
}app.use(detectFacebookBot);
# Apache .htaccess rules for FacebookBot# Block completely
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} FacebookBot [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F,L]# Or redirect to a static version
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} FacebookBot [NC]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/static/
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /static/$1 [L]# Or set environment variable for PHP
SetEnvIfNoCase User-Agent "FacebookBot" is_bot=1# Add cache headers for this bot
<If "%{HTTP_USER_AGENT} =~ /FacebookBot/i">
Header set Cache-Control "public, max-age=3600"
Header set X-Robots-Tag "noarchive"
</If>
# Nginx configuration for FacebookBot# Map user agent to variable
map $http_user_agent $is_facebookbot {
default 0;
~*FacebookBot 1;
}server {
# Block the bot completely
if ($is_facebookbot) {
return 403;
}
# Or serve cached content
location / {
if ($is_facebookbot) {
root /var/www/cached;
try_files $uri $uri.html $uri/index.html @backend;
}
try_files $uri @backend;
}
# Add headers for bot requests
location @backend {
if ($is_facebookbot) {
add_header Cache-Control "public, max-age=3600";
add_header X-Robots-Tag "noarchive";
}
proxy_pass http://backend;
}
}
Should You Block This Bot?
Recommendations based on your website type:
| Site Type | Recommendation | Reasoning |
|---|---|---|
| E-commerce | Limit Access | Protect pricing and inventory data from AI training |
| Blog/News | Consider Blocking | Your content may be used for AI training without compensation |
| SaaS Application | Block | No benefit for application interfaces; preserve resources |
| Documentation | Selective | Allow for public docs, block for internal docs |
| Corporate Site | Limit | Allow for public pages, block sensitive areas like intranets |
Advanced robots.txt Configurations
E-commerce Site Configuration
User-agent: FacebookBot
Crawl-delay: 5
Disallow: /cart/
Disallow: /checkout/
Disallow: /my-account/
Disallow: /api/
Disallow: /*?sort=
Disallow: /*?filter=
Disallow: /*&page=
Allow: /products/
Allow: /categories/
Sitemap: https://example.com/sitemap.xml
Publishing/Blog Configuration
User-agent: FacebookBot
# Blocking AI training bot
Disallow: /
SaaS/Application Configuration
User-agent: FacebookBot
Disallow: /app/
Disallow: /api/
Disallow: /dashboard/
Disallow: /settings/
Allow: /
Allow: /pricing/
Allow: /features/
Allow: /docs/
Quick Reference
User Agent Match
FacebookBotRobots.txt Name
FacebookBotCategory
aiRespects robots.txt
Yes
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