What is FacebookExternalHit?
FacebookExternalHit is a generic crawler operated by Meta. Use this crawler profile to identify user-agent tokens, operator signals, platform hints, and recommended handling.
FacebookExternalHit
Meta · Generic crawler
- Version
- 1.1
- First seen
- May 20, 2026
- Last seen
- May 25, 2026
- Confidence
- Known user-agent token
What is FacebookExternalHit?
FacebookExternalHit is a generic crawler operated by Meta. FacebookExternalHit is classified as a generic crawler that may fetch pages for search, SEO, monitoring, or data collection workflows.
FacebookExternalHit matched a known crawler token in the user-agent string, but this page alone does not prove IP ownership.
How to identify FacebookExternalHit in logs
Search server logs for FacebookExternalHit, facebookexternalhit, Facebot, Twitterbot. Matching those tokens is useful for discovery, but IP verification is still recommended before trusting the identity.
Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_11_1) AppleWebKit/601.2.4 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/9.0.1 Safari/601.2.4 facebookexternalhit/1.1 Facebot Twitterbot/1.0
Use this as a web-crawler lookup reference for identifying how this user-agent presents itself in server logs.
User-agent signals
- Product tokens
- Mozilla/5.0, Macintosh, Intel, Mac, OS, AppleWebKit/601.2.4, Gecko, Version/9.0.1
- Documentation
- None found in user-agent
- Contact
- None found
- Platform
- macOS · Desktop
- Browser profile
- Safari · WebKit
- Browser-like UA
- Yes
- HTTP library
- Unknown
- Spoof risk
- Medium
Questions answered by this crawler profile
What is FacebookExternalHit?
FacebookExternalHit is classified as a generic crawler that may fetch pages for search, SEO, monitoring, or data collection workflows.
Who operates FacebookExternalHit?
FacebookExternalHit is associated with Meta.
How do I identify FacebookExternalHit in logs?
Search server logs for FacebookExternalHit, facebookexternalhit, Facebot, Twitterbot. Matching those tokens is useful for discovery, but IP verification is still recommended before trusting the identity.
Should I allow FacebookExternalHit?
Verify IP ownership or behavior before making security decisions because user-agent strings can be spoofed. Monitor crawl rate and paths, then allow normal traffic or rate-limit/block if behavior becomes abusive.
Does FacebookExternalHit respect robots.txt?
Robots.txt compliance cannot be proven from a user-agent string alone. Check the crawler operator documentation and your own logs before assuming behavior.