Platform behaviour changes constantly and most guides are written once and never revisited. These are notes on what actually works today, what it costs, and where it breaks.
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TikTok's own Terms of Service give every user a perpetual licence to download other users' content, and separately forbid extracting anything by automated means. Both clauses are real. Here is how that contradiction plays out.
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YouTube's terms permit exactly two routes, and neither is the one most guides describe. What the rules say, why third-party downloaders keep failing, and what each option costs you.
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Instagram added a real download button for Reels. It writes a file to your device, and it stamps a watermark, the creator's username and audio attribution into it. Who can use it, when it is switched off, and what the alternatives cost.
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Anonymous story viewers and profile viewers are all the same thing wearing different names. What that thing is, what it can never do, and why the sites churn through domains so fast.