> or host anything itself.
It does, or there would be nothing to download.
> and the system processes them on demand > Webtor is a tool, not a content provider
By assembling the chunks into content it then provides via a link to download.
Is the implication here that the data is transient (eg time-gated or single use links) or something?
We're in the age of AI and Automation. Just because you aren't publishing an index of your content doesn't mean there aren't plenty of others searching, indexing, scraping, and aggregating it, nor does it mean the content isn't provided to the internet/public.
The content is only partially downloaded to the servers, and only on demand. Storage is limited — old, inactive cached data is removed when space is needed for new requests.
There’s also the ability to revisit previously used content via direct links like https://webtor.io/{infohash} — this lets users bookmark a stream or return to it later. However, availability still depends on whether the content is cached or needs to be fetched again.
I actually experimented with making content indexable in the past, but many torrents turned out to be pirated — and eventually triggered DMCA notices. So I chose not to publicly expose anything on the hosted version.
Automation is possible: there’s a public API and a lightweight SDK for embedding content into external websites.