What is FullFactIngest?

FullFactIngest is a bot in the feed fetchers category, operated by FullFact.

Bot name
FullFactIngest
Operator
FullFact
Type
Bot
Respects robots.txt
Not confirmed
robots.txt user agent
FullFact
Signs requests (Web Bot Auth)
No

About FullFactIngest

It pulls user-submitted RSS feeds every hour to process, extract and identify claims to analyse for misinformation.

Feed fetchers poll RSS and Atom feeds for readers, aggregators and podcast apps. They usually request feeds only, so they are cheap to allow. Watch for fetchers that pull full pages at high rates.

FullFactIngest user agent

FullFactIngest identifies itself with this user agent string:

  • FullFact (FullFact Media Ingest. https://fullfact.ai)

Anyone can copy a user agent string. Transfon Security also checks where each request comes from, so a request that claims to be a known crawler but comes from the wrong network is treated as a fake, not as the real crawler.

How to block FullFactIngest in robots.txt

We have not confirmed whether FullFactIngest follows robots.txt. Add a rule, then check your logs to see that it stopped. robots.txt is a plain text file at the root of your domain, such as https://example.com/robots.txt.

Block FullFactIngest from the whole site

User-agent: FullFact
Disallow: /

Block FullFactIngest from some folders

User-agent: FullFact
Disallow: /private/
Disallow: /search

Allow FullFactIngest only on some folders

User-agent: FullFact
Allow: /blog/
Disallow: /

Allow FullFactIngest and block other crawlers

User-agent: FullFact
Allow: /

User-agent: *
Disallow: /

Things to know

  • Each host needs its own file. Rules on www.example.com do not apply to shop.example.com.
  • A crawler obeys only the most specific group that names it. Once you add a User-agent: FullFact group, FullFactIngest ignores your User-agent: * rules, so repeat any that should still apply.
  • The user agent name is not case sensitive. We take FullFact from FullFactIngest's user agent; check FullFact's own documentation if it publishes a different robots.txt name.
  • Crawlers cache robots.txt, so changes can take up to a day to apply. Disallow stops crawling but does not remove pages already collected or indexed.

Limits of robots.txt

  1. FullFactIngest may not follow the rule. robots.txt is a request that nothing enforces, and we have not confirmed that FullFactIngest follows it. Check your logs after adding a rule.
  2. The user agent could be fake. robots.txt matches the name a request claims. Anyone can send FullFactIngest's user agent, and a scraper using it is not bound by FullFact's robots.txt policy. Only checking the source network tells a real FullFactIngest from a fake one.

Treat robots.txt as a statement of your policy, and enforce it where requests arrive.

Who should care about FullFactIngest

Publishers

FullFactIngest fetches pages when your links are shared or syndicated. Keep it allowed so previews and feeds work, but leave it out of page views and ad requests.

Transfon Security for publishers

Media buyers and advertisers

When ads or posts are shared, FullFactIngest fetches the landing page. Those hits are not clicks, so keep them out of campaign reports.

Transfon Security for advertisers

E-commerce

Product links shared in chats and feeds are fetched by FullFactIngest. Keep it allowed so previews show the right image and price.

Transfon Security for e-commerce

SaaS and APIs

Allow FullFactIngest on public pages so shared links preview well, and keep it off the app.

Transfon Security for SaaS and APIs

Block FullFactIngest with Transfon Security

robots.txt is a request, not an enforcement. Transfon Security shows FullFactIngest by name in the Top Bots report, so you can see how often it visits and which pages it reads. Block or allow it with a User Agent rule, or slow it down with a rate limit decision rule.

Transfon Security

Control FullFactIngest on your site

  • See every FullFactIngest visit and the pages it reads
  • Spot bots that fake trusted crawler names
  • Block, allow or rate limit FullFactIngest with one rule
  • Works with or without robots.txt support

Frequently asked questions

What is FullFactIngest?

FullFactIngest is a bot in the feed fetchers category, operated by FullFact. It pulls user-submitted RSS feeds every hour to process, extract and identify claims to analyse for misinformation.

Does FullFactIngest respect robots.txt?

We have not confirmed whether FullFactIngest follows robots.txt. Add a robots.txt rule, then check your logs to see that it stopped, and block it by user agent if it did not.

How do I block FullFactIngest?

Add "User-agent: FullFact" followed by "Disallow: /" to the robots.txt file at the root of your site. To enforce it, block requests whose user agent contains "FullFact" at your WAF. In Transfon Security that is one User Agent block rule.

Is robots.txt enough to block FullFactIngest?

No. robots.txt is voluntary, so FullFactIngest may not follow it, and anyone can send FullFactIngest's user agent, so a fake FullFactIngest ignores your rule. Enforce the rule where requests arrive, at your WAF, and check the source network.

Should I block FullFactIngest?

Feed fetchers poll RSS and Atom feeds for readers, aggregators and podcast apps. They usually request feeds only, so they are cheap to allow. Watch for fetchers that pull full pages at high rates.

Related bots

All feed fetchers · Full bot directory

See Which Bots Visit Your Site

Transfon Security identifies every bot in this directory in your traffic reports, flags fake search crawlers, and lets you allow, block or rate limit each bot.

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