l.facebook.com
Facebook link redirect (link shim)
What it is
Facebook's outbound link redirect, which Facebook calls the link shim. Links to other sites on Facebook point at l.facebook.com/l.php with your URL as a parameter, and that page sends the visitor on.
Why there's no full URL
Facebook routes clicks through the shim on purpose so the destination learns the visit came from Facebook without seeing which profile, group or post it came from.
What traffic it represents
Clicks on links to your site from Facebook, typically on the desktop site.
Sources
We still need to let the websites you navigate to know the traffic is from Facebook, but we also want to prevent them from reading the full source url.
A faster, better link shim - Engineering at Meta
"linkshim_host":"l.facebook.com"
Facebook page source (checked 2026-10-06)
Related referrers
android-app://com.linkedin.androidLinkedIn app on Androidandroid-app://com.reddit.frontpageReddit app on Androidandroid-app://com.twitter.androidX (formerly Twitter) app on Androidandroid-app://com.google.android.youtubeYouTube app on Androidlm.facebook.comFacebook link redirect (mobile)l.instagram.comInstagram link redirectt.coX (Twitter) link shortenerlnkd.inLinkedIn short linkwww.linkedin.comLinkedIn websitewww.youtube.comYouTube (via youtube.com/redirect)news.ycombinator.comHacker News
Referrers, grouped by how people arrived
Vireo Analytics groups your referrers by how people arrived, counts AI assistants as their own source, and joins Search Console so you see the searches behind each post. Free on WordPress.org.
Get Vireo free