Key Takeaways
Oslo District Court barred Meta on 28 October 2026 from implementing its changed commercial terms until their legality is finally decided
10 Norwegian media companies, including NRK, TV 2, Schibsted and Amedia, brought the case
Meta had already moved the terms' start date from 30 October to 20 November 2026
MBL says the court found Meta holds a dominant position and the new terms are unreasonable
Meta's crawler documentation says 2 of its 5 crawlers may bypass robots.txt
Meta business terms hit a legal block on 28 October, when Oslo District Court ruled for 10 Norwegian media companies.
Norway's media business association, MBL, announced the ruling. It says Meta can't implement the changes to its commercial terms until a court finally decides whether they're lawful.
The publishers asked for a temporary injunction only a day earlier, as Press Gazette reported on 27 October.
If you run a Facebook Page or an Instagram business account for a brand, these terms reach you. Meta is also tying more of its business tools together, as with Muse for Small Business linking to ad accounts.
What did the Oslo court decide about Meta business terms?
Oslo District Court decided on 28 October 2026 that Meta can't implement the changes to its commercial terms until a final ruling on their legality, according to MBL. The case was brought by 10 Norwegian media companies, including NRK, TV 2, Schibsted and Amedia. MBL says the court agreed that Meta holds a dominant position and that the new terms are unreasonable.
4 demands the Norwegian publishers put to Meta
Amedia's release on the filing lists what the publishers want from Meta:
- A written commitment to respect scraping opt-outs, including robots.txt
- Separate, voluntary deals with each publisher for AI training and AI services
- Payment as part of those negotiations
- No loss of visibility or traffic for publishers who say no
MBL says the terms would let Meta scrape every article, image and video, including paywalled content. It says the only way to refuse would be to delete the account.
How the Meta terms dispute unfolded in 6 weeks
| Date | What happened | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 15 Oct 2026 | Nieman Lab first reported the new terms | Digiday |
| 16 Oct 2026 | Meta removed the word "train" from the terms | Digiday |
| 22 Oct 2026 | Trade bodies including WAN-IFRA and the News/Media Alliance sent letters opposing the terms | Digiday |
| 26 Oct 2026 | Meta's new start date of 20 November was reported | Digiday, SEJ |
| 27 Oct 2026 | 10 Norwegian media companies asked Oslo District Court for a temporary injunction | Amedia, Press Gazette |
| 28 Oct 2026 | The court barred Meta from implementing the changes | MBL |
| 20 Nov 2026 | Meta's planned start date | Digiday, SEJ |
Digiday's report on the publisher pushback has the full list of letters and complaints. Search Engine Journal checked Meta's previews and found the crawl paragraph unchanged after the delay.
Meta's 5 crawlers and how robots.txt applies
Meta told Digiday that content owners "will still be able to use robots.txt to signal preferences." Danielle Coffey of the News/Media Alliance told Digiday that blocking Meta's crawlers would keep publishers' content from appearing to Meta users.
Meta's web crawler documentation names 5 crawlers:
| Crawler token | What Meta says it does | Robots.txt, per Meta |
|---|---|---|
| facebookexternalhit | Builds link previews on Facebook, Instagram and Messenger | May bypass robots.txt during security or integrity checks |
| meta-webindexer | Crawls to improve Meta AI search results | Allowing it helps Meta AI cite and link your content |
| meta-externalads | Crawls to improve advertising and other business products | Blocked with a disallow rule |
| meta-externalagent | Crawls for uses such as training foundation AI models or indexing content | Blocked with a disallow rule |
| meta-externalfetcher | Fetches single links at a user's request, including for AI agent tasks | May bypass robots.txt |
"this crawler may bypass robots.txt rules" - Meta, on Meta-ExternalFetcher
So 3 of the 5 crawlers follow a disallow rule with no stated exception. Blocking facebookexternalhit would also break the previews people see when they share your links.
If robots.txt is new ground for your team, Google's free technical SEO playlist covers robots.txt and crawl stats in its third week.
What isn't confirmed yet
- Whether the ruling covers businesses outside Norway
- Whether Meta will appeal, and how it responds to the ruling
- Whether Meta keeps 20 November as the start date in other countries
- Whether the terms apply the same way to businesses in India
3 things to do before 20 November
Read the crawl paragraph yourself. Open Meta's Commercial Terms preview in your own region and note the effective date it shows.
Decide crawler by crawler. Keep meta-webindexer allowed if you want Meta AI to cite your pages. Add a disallow for meta-externalagent if you don't want training use.
Log the change date. Meta says crawlers can cache robots.txt for up to 24 hours, so note when you edited it before you check server logs.
This content is generated with the help of AI and involves human oversight. Please verify the sources and claims at your end.
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