Meta's automated web visitors have reportedly burdened small business sites for years, and new terms changes have put the company under fresh scrutiny.
Small business owners who run their own websites may want to check their traffic. According to Fast Company, website managers say Meta's web crawlers have been straining small sites for years. The report comes as Meta faces intense scrutiny over a separate change to its terms.
Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, announced upcoming changes to its terms for business accounts. Critics say the changes essentially let AI crawlers run wild across those accounts. A crawler is an automated program that visits web pages and collects what it finds.
Website managers say Meta has done a version of this on websites for years. Small online businesses are often left to deal with the effects. A busy crawler can slow a site down or add to hosting costs, which a small shop may feel more than a big company does.
If you do not run your own website and only use a Facebook or Instagram business account, the crawler complaints are mostly about websites. Still, the terms changes cover business accounts, so they are worth reading when they arrive.
The material does not say when the terms change takes effect, what exactly it allows, or how many sites are affected. It also does not include a response from Meta. Those details are worth watching for.
The alert box above lists the steps. In short, read the new terms, ask your web host what automated visitors your site gets, and talk to your web developer if traffic looks odd.
If you run a small website, check for unexplained traffic spikes or slowdowns and ask your host or developer what is visiting.
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