They put themselves into a position where backing out is also extremely costly. a) it means they have to publicly admit that what they did was a bad idea, whic

They put themselves into a position where backing out is also extremely costly. a) it means they have to publicly admit that what they did was a bad idea, which will fuel another news cycle b) backing out of it will get them criticized for "protecting pedophiles", maybe even the NCMEC (who privately praised them in the "screeching voices of the minority" memo) will now publicly criticize and shame them to get what it wants c) now that they've put this idea on the table, there will be even more government pressure to mandate/implement it. Even if they back out of the implementation, just by bringing this proposal up, Apple may have just destroyed not just the privacy of their users, but of everyone.