Meta-ExternalFetcher
Meta documents Meta-ExternalFetcher as a user-triggered fetch. It is still a machine User-Agent, not a facebook.com social referrer.
- Operator
- Meta
- Motif family
- meta
- Motif class
- User-requested fetch
- In Motif classifier
- Yes
- robots.txt
- Often a user-initiated fetch; check vendor docs
- Executes JavaScript
- No
- Verified in Motif
- No public IP list Motif relies on
What Motif will and will not claim
Motif classifies Meta-ExternalFetcher as family meta, class user, on tracker or collector hits.
Revenue
Facebook and Instagram first touch still come from those referrer hosts, not from this fetcher.
Vendor documentation
Start with the vendor page at https://developers.facebook.com/docs/sharing/webmasters/web-crawlers. Motif stores the controlled token from a self-reported User-Agent.
Meta-ExternalFetcher User-Agent example
meta-externalfetcherAllow Meta-ExternalFetcher in robots.txt
User-agent: Meta-ExternalFetcher
Allow: /Block Meta-ExternalFetcher in robots.txt
User-agent: Meta-ExternalFetcher
Disallow: /Does Meta-ExternalFetcher count as a visit in Motif?
No. If Meta-ExternalFetcher hits the Motif tracker or collector it increments AI crawlers. It does not create a visitor and cannot win a recommendation.
Will Motif show Meta-ExternalFetcher on my HTML pages?
Only if that client requested /m.js or POST /v1/events. HTML-only crawls of the origin never reach Motif. Saying otherwise would be a product lie.
Should I block Meta-ExternalFetcher?
User-requested fetchers often ignore robots.txt because a person asked for the page. Blocking them in robots.txt may do nothing. They are still not visitors in Motif.