[YokoSix]

That's the big point they don't address. Apple can't possibly check every hash of every file some obscure organization is sending to their database, especially in foreign countries.

If some men in black walk into the offices of some nice little child protecting service in Ohio and demand that they put some additional hashes into the database because otherwise something bad could happen to them or their families, does Apple really think they would decline?

It doesn't matter how secure the system is, the vulnerability is that virtually anyone can input virtually anything into the database without Apple even knowing and expose selected users that way.

This failure point is now at the heart of iOS and macOS and it's baffling that Apple doesn't see that or doesn't want to see it.

My guess is that they're somehow forced to implement this and try to talk their way out of it with some strange PR pieces which are only convincing their most naive users.

[sennight]

Something weird is definitely going on. I'd normally chalk it up to a powermad hubris that seems to be common among technocrats, but this is the latest example of a corporation voluntarily providing politically motivated non-profits the ability to control their platforms. This has been going on for a while on financial networks - in the pursuit of the elusive, but totally real, neonazi resurgence. Paypal recently announced such a "partnership". Microsoft has allowed some UK based group to censor their search results for a long time now. That was originally sold under the banner of "bbbut the children!", but the only reason I know about it is because they started blacklisting sites that archived video related to the war in Syria.

[unstatusthequo]

Totally agree. The CASM is just a Trojan horse for something else. What better to disguise it in than some altruistic, ethical, and moral heart string pull that makes any opponent seem like a pedo.