That headline literally says they’re not doing that. It was a well-meaning initiative that they rightfully backed down on when called out.
I am one of the first to typically assume malice or profit when a company does something, but I really think Apple was trying to do something good for society in a way that is otherwise as privacy-focused as they could be. They just didn’t stop to consider whether or not they should be proactive in legal matters, and when they got reamed by privacy advocates, they decided not to go forward with it.
Apple says it would remove iMessage and FaceTime in the UK rather than break end-to-end encryption (9to5mac.com)
This is the look of a late-stage rule (media.kbin.social)