Is there a single word for an idea that receives acceptance not due to approval, but because opposing it is risky?
Is there an English word for an idea or policy that receives widespread acceptance not due to approval, but because opposing it requires immense effort or risk?
For example, a company's CEO introduces a diversity program which will clearly disadvantage all of its current employees, but no one objects to it in fear of the being called racist.
What can one call such a policy?
Solution 1:
In politics, the idea could be called a third rail.
The third rail of a nation's politics is a metaphor for any issue so controversial that it is "charged" and "untouchable" to the extent that any politician or public official who dares to broach the subject will invariably suffer politically. The metaphor comes from the high-voltage third rail in some electric railway systems.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_rail_of_politics
Or sacred cow
An idea, custom, or institution held to be above criticism
https://www.lexico.com/definition/sacred_cow
Note: the example you gave in the OP might be something different: Doing something because it is right even though it is unpopular. That is sort of the opposite of what I am answering, which is not doing something because the opposite is popular.
Solution 2:
I suggest acquiescence.
Acquiescence (noun): The reluctant acceptance of something without protest.
Example: in silent acquiescence, she rose to her feet. [Lexico]
The verb for that would be acquiesce which means to accept something reluctantly but without protest.
Or try preference falsification.
Preference falsification is the act of communicating a preference that differs from one's true preference. The public frequently convey, especially to researchers or pollsters, preferences that differ from what they truly want, often because they believe the conveyed preference is more acceptable socially. [Wikipedia]
(Groupthink, pluralistic ignorance, capitulate and the lesser of two evils could also work here.)