There’s no going back now. They revealed themselves to be enthusiastic participants in a creeping global surveillance system. They’d have to fire every single executive who passed on an opportunity to tank this thing before they get the opportunity to make the case that they’ve changed.

10 bucks they don't.

The idea that because the state of the art right now is flawed that Apple should give up misses the point.

Even if it is flawed, in a few years Apple will just release a new version or a different technique that works more effectively for its stated purpose. Other companies will silently improve the server-side scanning techniques they already use after the public outcry started by Apple blows over.

So long as companies feel the need to protect themselves from liability for hosting certain kinds of data, be it criminal or political or moral or anything else, there are no societal checks in place to stop them from doing so.

This is not a technological issue like so many people are trying to frame it as; it is a policy issue.

The only way they will back out is if this misunderstanding of perceptual hashes results in significant blowback from average customers. Apple is certainly not going to be surprised that a perceptual hash collision is technically easy.

This! Apple almost never admit their mistakes ("You're holding it wrong"), so the technical argument would allow leaving this feature in an indefinite and perhaps opt-in beta.