Follow the money

from here and here

Realistically, if the feds can track down purveyors of child sexual abuse material through the blockchain, they can track down ransomware operators too. There's absolutely no added complexity.

How protective instincts get used against us

from here and here

In news that's sure to surprise exactly no one, European governments already had plans to misuse the CSAM scanning technology Apple was going to release. Somehow, I think that's just the tip of the iceberg.

An advancement towards the grave, maybe

from here and here (image source)

Apple's CSAM (child sexual abuse material) scanning plans may now be paused, but paused isn't the same as stopped, and if they really think it's an advancement in privacy then it's important to recognize the distinction between paused and stopped.

In no world is adding surveillance where none previously existed an advancement in privacy, no matter how favourably it may compare to what others are doing. Furthermore, if your plan involves trying to work around the problem of encryption then you are once again not advancing privacy because, when it comes to privacy, encryption is not a problem that needs a work-around.

They still plan to go forward with this one way or another. They're just slowing down to consider how to take the bite out of the criticisms against it so that they can still pretend like they care about your privacy.