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Monday, 19 October 2026
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Cybercrime and Scams

Meta Muse bot drives surge in web traffic according to DataDome

Artificial intelligence agent traffic rose over 40 percent in the third quarter of 2026 as Meta deployed its new Muse tool across sensitive web pages.

FTMQ Security, written by our newsroom0 views

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Picture: Help Net Security

Artificial intelligence agent traffic across the DataDome network increased by 41.5 percent quarter over quarter in the third quarter of 2026, Help Net Security reported. DataDome recorded nearly 25 billion requests during this period, with Meta generating half of the observed AI bot traffic hitting websites. [1]

Meta launched its Muse tool recently, generating 29.1 million requests between September 22 and October 3 during its first 12 days of full availability, according to Help Net Security. DataDome observed the AI agent reaching sensitive online forms during this rollout. [1]

Help Net Security reported that 99.3 percent of analyzed Muse traffic originated from cloud and content delivery network infrastructure. Furthermore, nearly half of all AI agent traffic recorded in 2026 through September occurred within the third quarter as agentic browsers surged. [1]

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In short

  • DataDome recorded nearly 25 billion AI agent requests in the third quarter of 2026.
  • Meta generated half of the AI bot traffic hammering websites in the third quarter of 2026.
  • Meta Muse produced 29.1 million requests in its first 12 days of full availability.
  • DataDome found that 99.3 percent of sampled Muse requests came from cloud and CDN infrastructure.

Sources

Every paragraph above points to the numbered items it rests on. Read the originals here.

  1. [1]Half the AI bot traffic hammering your website comes from MetaHelp Net Security, 1h ago (the report this story comes from)

Background

  1. [2]Half & Half on Wikipedia
  2. [3]List of airline codes on Wikipedia

Our newsroom writes these reports with the help of software, from the 3 sources listed and nothing else, and checks them against those sources. Facts can still be wrong or move on; the originals are the record. Spotted a mistake? Write to daniel@monsterkong.com.

Earlier reports of ours on the same people and subjects.

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