OLD AND BUSTED: Apple still refuses to unlock iPhones, so Bill Barr is mad.

—Young-adult site* Vox.com, May 18th, 2020.

The new Hotness? Apple is opening a Pandora’s box with its upcoming software update:

Apple has announced it will install a program on iPhones in the United States that will persistently scan users’ photos and flag those its algorithm believes to be related to child abuse.

Flagged photos will then be reviewed by humans to determine if they violate any laws. Once implemented, the measure will affect roughly one-third of people in the U.S.

Although the goals of this initiative are noble, its implications are dire. We learned last month that the federal government is actively advising social media platforms on what constitutes disinformation, sometimes even going as far as to single out individual posts and users for removal. Bear in mind, many things branded disinformation throughout the pandemic have turned out to be true.

What could possibly go wrong?

Orwell didn’t write 1984 as a how-to guide. As Jim Geraghty wrote in October of 2019, when the CCP-NBA connection was exposed for millions of Americans to see: We’re Not Exporting Our Values to China — We’re Importing Theirs.

* Classical reference.