Meta Commercial Terms Let It Crawl Your Website: 4 Things Brands Should Do Before November 20
If you have ever run ads on Facebook or Instagram, managed a business Page, or used Meta Business Suite, you are very likely one of Meta's "business customers." In mid-October, Meta published revised Meta Commercial Terms, including a clause that authorizes Meta to use automated software to crawl domains, web pages and URLs associated with your products or services. Publishers in Europe and the UK complained to antitrust authorities, and Meta then pushed the effective date from October 30 to November 20. For brands, these three weeks aren't a buffer to ignore; they are a chance to get your website content in order.
What Changed in the Meta Commercial Terms? The Website Crawling Clause
According to reporting by The Register and PPC Land, the key points of the new terms are:
- Authorization to crawl: Businesses authorize Meta (or anyone acting on its behalf) to use automated software to access and crawl domains, web pages and URLs associated with their products or services, and to pull periodic updates.
- The word "train" was removed: The October 16 version said crawled content could be used to "provide, develop, improve, research, train" Meta's products and features. The Verge reported on October 17 that Meta removed the AI training language; the stated purpose is now "advertising and business products."
- Continued use means acceptance: Section 7 says that continuing to use Meta's business products after notice of an update counts as acceptance, with no option for partial consent.
Meta says the terms apply only to ads and business products, and that site owners can still signal their preferences through robots.txt. Critics point out that "advertising and business products" is undefined and that the terms don't explicitly commit to honoring robots.txt. As US law professor Eric Goldman put it, the language doesn't expressly say Meta will respect robots.txt instructions.
Step 1: Confirm Whether You Are a "Business Customer"
Many brands assume they only "run the odd ad" and won't be affected. But under Meta's definition, running ads or marketing messages, listing or selling products, developing apps, and using Ads Manager or Meta Business Suite all make you a business customer. The Register also notes that at least a million businesses use Meta's AI agents on WhatsApp and Messenger.
Start by listing every Meta account your company holds: ad accounts, Pages, Instagram business accounts, shops and WhatsApp Business, along with the domains each one links to. That list is the scope of what could be crawled.
Step 2: Audit Your Website—What Can Be Read, What Can't
Not everything needs to be blocked. Product pages, service descriptions and store information are content you want more platforms and AI systems to read. As we discussed in "Fewer Clicks, Bigger Stakes: Why Being Cited Is the New Ranking in AI Search," getting AI to cite you accurately is a new form of visibility.
What really needs protection is a different kind of content:
- Paid or members-only content: courses, reports, member areas.
- Core creative assets: original articles, design portfolios, photography and video.
- Pages that shouldn't be public: test pages, internal documents, unreleased campaign pages.
Split your site into "welcome to read" and "needs protection" zones so your technical settings have a clear basis. Members-only content should sit behind a login, not just behind a line in robots.txt.
Step 3: Set Up robots.txt and Know Meta's Three Crawlers
Meta's developer documentation lists three main crawlers, each with a different purpose and a different relationship to robots.txt:
- Meta-ExternalAgent: Crawls the web to train foundation AI models or improve products; the documentation says it can be blocked with robots.txt.
- Meta-ExternalFetcher: Fetches individual links when a user asks, supporting AI agents that complete tasks; because these fetches are user-initiated, it may bypass robots.txt.
- facebookexternalhit: Fetches titles, descriptions and thumbnails to build link previews for shared links; it may also bypass robots.txt for security checks.
If you don't want your content used to train models, you can disallow Meta-ExternalAgent in robots.txt. Note that blocking facebookexternalhit could strip the preview image from your links when they're shared on Facebook. Changes to robots.txt can also take up to 24 hours to apply.
Step 4: Review the Terms With Legal—Don't Wait for the Deadline
A few other provisions deserve a brand's attention: AI features "may make mistakes" and businesses bear the risk; businesses indemnify Meta against claims related to their use of its products; and Meta can change or discontinue products without notice. For US businesses, the arbitration opt-out window is 30 days from first acceptance, which would run to roughly December 20 if counted from November 20.
What we recommend:
- Have legal counsel or an advisor read the revised terms, especially the crawling, AI feature and liability clauses.
- Decide your company's position and write it into your internal AI and content policy.
- If an agency manages your accounts, make sure they know about the change and your decision.
Conclusion: In the AI Era, Your Website Is an Asset to Manage
This episode is a reminder that your website isn't just a storefront for people; it's a data source every AI system and platform wants to read. Deciding which content should be seen and which should be protected is something brands should do proactively, not discover after the terms take effect. AI does the reading and organizing; people decide what is worth sharing. If you want to rethink your website's content structure and technical setup, explore TitApeX's services or get in touch.
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