“Yo what?” LimeWire re-emerges in online rush to share pulled “60 Minutes” segment

CBS cannot contain the online spread of a “60 Minutes” segment that its editor-in-chief, Bari Weiss, tried to block from airing.

The episode, “Inside CECOT,” featured testimonies from US deportees who were tortured or suffered physical or sexual abuse at a notorious Salvadoran prison, the Center for the Confinement of Terrorism. “Welcome to hell,” one former inmate was told upon arriving, the segment reported, while also highlighting a clip of Donald Trump praising CECOT and its leadership for “great facilities, very strong facilities, and they don’t play games.”

Weiss controversially pulled the segment on Monday, claiming it could not air in the US because it lacked critical voices, as no Trump officials were interviewed. She claimed that the segment “did not advance the ball” and merely echoed others’ reporting, NBC News reported. Her plan was to air the segment when it was “ready,” insisting that holding stories “for whatever reason” happens “every day in every newsroom.”

But Weiss apparently did not realize that the “Inside CECOT” would still stream in Canada, giving the public a chance to view the segment as reporters had intended.

Critics accusing CBS of censoring the story quickly shared the segment online Monday after discovering that it was available on the Global TV app. Using a VPN to connect to the app with a Canadian IP address was all it took to override Weiss’ block in the US, as 404 Media reported the segment was uploaded to “to a variety of file sharing sites and services, including iCloud, Mega, and as a torrent,” including on the recently revived file-sharing service LimeWire. It’s currently also available to stream on the Internet Archive, where one reviewer largely summed up the public’s response so far, writing, “cannot believe this was pulled, not a dang thing wrong with this segment except it shows truth.”

CBS did not immediately respond to Ars’ request to comment. The network faces criticism from both outside and within its studios, as reporters and CBS viewers question the integrity of Weiss’ decision now that the segment has aired. Recently appointed CBS editor-in-chief, Weiss’ prior experience as a contrarian opinion writer helming her own right-leaning platform, The Free Press, prompted early concerns that she might water down CBS’s critical coverage of the Trump administration. And the seeming censorship of the “60 Minutes” episode was perceived by some as a canary in a coal mine, confirming critics’ fears.

CBS correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi, who anchored the segment, noted that the Trump administration had repeatedly declined to comment as the story came together. By delaying the segment solely because of Trump officials’ silence, Weiss appeared to be giving the Trump administration a “kill switch” to block any story they don’t want aired, Alfonsi suggested.

“Our story was screened five times and cleared by both CBS attorneys and Standards and Practices,” Alfonsi wrote in a note to CBS colleagues that was widely shared online. “It is factually correct. In my view, pulling it now, after every rigorous internal check has been met, is not an editorial decision, it is a political one.”

Tim Richardson, journalism and disinformation program director at PEN America, told NBC News that Weiss risked damaging CBS’s credibility by making a seemingly hasty decision to postpone a report that may have upset the Trump administration.

“CBS journalists, among the best in this country, appropriately made an outreach effort to get the government to weigh in on a deeply reported story out of El Salvador,” Richardson said. “Pulling it back at the last minute because the government chose not to respond is an insult not only to the integrity of the journalists but to core principles of independent news gathering.”