>> it's not obvious how we can trust that a rogue actor (like a foreign government) couldn't add non-CSAM hashes to the list to root out human rights advocates or political rivals. Apple has tried to mitigate this by requiring two countries to agree to add a file to the list, but the process for this seems opaque and ripe for abuse.

> If the CCP says "put these hashes in your database or we will halt all iPhone sales in China", what do you think Apple is going to do? Is anyone so naive that they believe the CCP wouldn't deliver such an ultimatum? Apple's position seems to completely ignore recent Chinese history.

Apple policy << Local laws and regulations. It's very hard to believe their policy is anything less than a deliberate PR smokescreen meant to disarm critics, because it has so many holes.

Edit: just thought of another way Apple's policy could be easily circumvented and therefore cannot be regarded as a serious proposal: get two countries to collaborate to add politically sensitive hashes to the list (e.g. China and North Korea, or China and Cambodia). That doesn't even require Apple to be coerced.