I agree about how the technology can be applied to other instances, but I feel that people who are criticizing Apple are crucially placing all the blame on Apple but not on the government that pressured them into doing this in the first place. This CSAM issue is proof that if even the most valuable company in the world can be pressured into compliance, then any company in the world could be, calling into question whether it is realistic in the first place to expect companies to act ethically while also creating highly profitable products.

For all the things that have been said about the issue, I don’t remember a single comment that has been directed at the US government, or China itself, or any discussions about how nation-states should be run and genuine introspections on what could prevent surveillance states from existing in the first place.