Apple Faces Internal Backlash Over iPhone Child Sexual Abuse Content Scanning Feature: Report

Apple Inc. AAPL is facing an internal backlash over its plan to scan iPhones in the U.S. for child sexual abuse images, Reuters reported Wednesday.

What Happened: Apple employees have sent more than 800 messages on an Apple internal Slack channel, expressing their worries that the feature could be used by authoritarian governments to find material for censorship or arrests, as per the report.

Some of the employees also reportedly noted that Apple’s move is voluntarily and could have potentially dire consequences. Some posters on the internal Slack channel worried that the Cupertino-based tech giant is damaging its reputation for protecting privacy with the plan.

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Why It Matters: Apple announced the launch of the new features last week but it triggered a controversy over whether the system will weaken Apple user privacy.

Security experts are worried that the technology could be eventually be expanded to scan phones for other prohibited content. Apple could also be forced by authoritarian governments to provide data that could be used to spy on dissidents and protestors.

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Apple’s plan was criticized by Will Cathcart, the head of Facebook Inc.’s FB WhatsApp instant messaging app.

However, Apple has stressed that it will not allow any government to conduct surveillance using the new features.

Price Action: Apple shares closed almost 2.1% higher in Thursday’s regular trading session at $148.89 and further edged up less than 0.1% in the after-hours session to $148.99.

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