The president of Mexico on Thursday expressed hope that Google “reconsiders” its decision to change its online maps to reflect U.S. President Donald Trump’s claim that he has the authority to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico.
Shortly after taking office, Trump issued an executive order announcing he was changing the name of the body of water to the Gulf of America.
For U.S. users of Google Maps, the gulf was listed as the Gulf of America as of Thursday. Google, whose CEO attended Trump’s inauguration along with other tech moguls, said last month it has “a long-standing practice of applying name changes when they have been updated in official government sources.”
But Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum warned Thursday that her government “will file a civil suit” against Google if it does not revert back to labeling the international body of water the Gulf of Mexico.
Google are an American company, and the government of the USA has changed the name. What else do people expect them to do?
Besides, it still say Gulf of Mexico if you’re outside the USA.
If there existed any valid reasoning for the change… 🤷♂️
But the Felon Dicktater is only doing it so he can claim himself architect of global geographic change. Same reason he wants Greenland, Panama, Gaza, etc.
Fuck that.
I back Sheinbaum on this one. Won’t matter, but do it anyway.
He wants to seize Greenland, Panama and Canada because they are either strategically important or have valuable resources, or both (and, in the case of Canada, because he wants revenge on Trudeau for being “woke” and standing up to his ape-dominance handshakes). This name change though is just because he hates Mexicans.
Dicktater brought to mind very unpleasant images
I’m thinking that there was a reason for the change; drilling for oil was blocked in the Gulf of Mexico.
There are 3200 active wells in the Gulf of Mexico.
www.ncei.noaa.gov/maps/gulf-data-atlas/atlas.htm?plate=Offshore Structures#:~:text=Since the first offshore drilling,of Mexico’s Outer Continental Shelf
I’m aware. I’ve been there. Kinda hard to miss em.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/06/business/biden-offshore-drilling-ban-trump/index.html
That’s a valid point, but why do you expect Google to take a principled stand on this? Take it up with your government.
In the world I want to live in…
Google would have taken a principled stand against such an attempt at a govt.
Instead, they bent the knee along with every other Tech Oligarch and, therefore, deserve the hit.
1.- Refuse-
2.- Apply only the part of the name change that’s actually covered by US jurisdiction. The Gulf of Mexico extends noticeably beyond US’s borders.
But hey this is Google we’re talking about.
If I’m a eg.: Colombian, it should be
“Gulf of Mexico”“Golfo de México” wherever I stand, not “Gulf of America”.Strictly speaking, per the EO, this is what they should have done. The EO defines the area to be renamed as:
You can see exactly where that seaward boundary is on this map: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:US_ECS_Regions_2023.png
The area described is less than half the whole Gulf of Mexico.
OK, but how is Google supposed to know what nationality you are?
Doesn’t need to (but yeah yeah they’re Google, I know…). They just should name it “Gulf of México” or whatever the translated name is to the user’s device, and add an asterisk somewhere that shows a note to the effect of “a small fraction of Confederate remnants think it should be called ‘Gulf of America’”.
That is essentially what they’ve done by putting Gulf of America in brackets behind the original name.
But why? Why should any other country care about the US’s ridiculous internal politics
IP address, same way they decide what language to show the names in
When did they do that?
Or are you one of those people who would agree if Trump said “I am the state”?
It was changed by executive order, which the president has the authority to do. Google doesn’t get to go “nuh-uh” and keep it the same.
I was unaware that the executive branch encompassed the entirety of the government. Please, do elaborate.
If you want to know more about how the US government works, I’m not the person to educate you.
Clearly, since you think an executive order is a law.
Then why are you here trying to tell people that one asshole with an opinion is the government?
You can argue with strangers on the Internet as much as you like, but the fact is, the US president can and has changed the name of multiple geographic features, and arguing with me won’t change that.
Oh, you’ve been caught being dumb and your story is changing.
First it was “the government”, now it’s “the president”.
That’s not how America works, lol. Naming things is a legislative responsibility. Trump can sign as many executive orders as he wants, but it isn’t official without an act of congress and a chance for the judiciary to object.
potus is the “head of government”. Would you prefer @[email protected] to write “head of government of the USA has changed the name”?
give them a break!
The president is part of the government, they’re not two separate entities.
And once again, there is nothing to be gained by arguing with me about this.
Yes, and Congress delegated that authority in 1947 via Public Law 242, creating the US Board on Geographic Names, under the Secretary of the Interior, part of the executive branch. The President has the authority to direct the Secretary.
You can speak as confidently as you like, but you’re still wrong. Feel free to learn: https://www.usgs.gov/us-board-on-geographic-names
Executive orders are not laws. You do know that, right?
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Because Google is a US company, and not in a position to tell the US government to take a walk, that’s why.
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Tianamen square shows up just fine on Google maps, who is supposedly censoring them?
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Are you going to chip in for my air fare?
I mean, they are to an extent. The laws of the US are ostensibly supposed to allow citizens to call things whatever they want. If the government wants to throw a hissy fit and say the constitution is meaningless after all, let them do it. At least then we could give up all of the pretense that they are supposed to care about what it says.
I very much doubt that privilege extends to a mapmaker
Why wouldn’t it? Google’s just a company, not an arm of the government. At best, maybe there is some sort of accreditation process to have their maps called “authentic” or “accurate” or whatnot, but I’ve never heard of any US law that penalizes the publication of an inaccurate map.
Are you seriously suggesting nothing whatsoever would happen if Google just didn’t update their maps to the new name?