Meta Pauses Ad Terms, but Existing Crawl Rights Still Apply to Advertisers
Meta has frozen its updated advertiser terms, yet the current ones still let it crawl advertiser sites, so check your robots.txt rules now.
Pierre Silva1 min read
Should Advertisers Worry About Meta Crawling Their Sites?
Matt G. Southern's report for Search Engine Journal explains that Meta has paused updated business and ad terms that were due to take effect on November 20, leaving advertisers on the existing agreements. The key point is that those current documents already let Meta crawl content on advertiser domains when an ad order is placed, for uses that include research and training. The article also covers the AI-related responsibility clauses that were in the suspended version, and notes that regulators and courts in several countries are still reviewing the terms.
For brand builders, this is a useful checkpoint rather than a crisis. Anyone who runs Meta campaigns, manages a Facebook Page or owns the sites linked from ads should read the piece to understand which crawlers are involved and how robots.txt fits in. It is worth reading before you sign off new ad orders or update your site's crawler policy.
Source: searchenginejournal.com · Originally published
