- cross-posted to:
- technology@lemmy.zip
- cross-posted to:
- technology@lemmy.zip
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.
I can see Google (and Apple) quietly paying a fine and changing it for Mexico (and any other jurisdiction that specifically asks).
This is stupid and cowardly of them, but that aside, the implication is 100% “comply, or the US government will make life difficult for Google.” I can see how they’re stuck between a rock and a hard place.
Nah, they’re willing collaborators.
I legitimately don’t understand why the U.S. isn’t the only locality where it shows up as “Gulf of America”.
Set the en-US string to “Gulf of America”. Leave literally every other region’s text string untouched from what it was 6 months ago.
When the next Democrat U.S. President gets sworn in and immediately Executive Orders it back to “Gulf of Mexico”, change the en-US string back to that.
This is all so stupid and melodramatic.
That’s the point!
Step two of the plan you outlined was inverted by Google, but the effect is the same: IIRC it only shows up that way for US users.
Edit: apparently that was either a lie or incomplete info, see comments elsewhere in this thread.
Where’d you first hear this?
Not judging, just curious about the information chain.
I can confirm that it shows up as both for me. I’m not in US or Mexico, and it shows as “Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America)”. The info I saw was that it shows as GoA in the US, GoM in Mexico, and both everywhere else. At least 2 of those are true, I’m guessing all 3 are
Can confirm it’s both here in Canada where we’re not supposed to be a part of this insanity
Reporting about how the maps team reclassified the US as a “sensitive country”, a la: https://www.cnbc.com/2025/01/28/google-reclassifies-us-as-sensitive-country-like-china-russia-.html
Since when is the big tech the arbiter of truth? It might come as a surprise to you, but Google and Apple don’t care about your holy war against Trump.
You think Google and Apple should call it the Gulf of America?
I think Google and Apple should call it whatever the official names are, not to take any sort of political stance.
Then why add “Gulf of America” in countries that do not recognize the name?
In case you have forgotten, Google is an American company, every one of their decisions is taken in California. Maybe calling everything you don’t agree “fascist” isn’t a smart idea, since it shows that you have no idea what the meaning of that word is.
That is not what I asked.
OK, let’s reverse it, and say Mexico renamed the Gulf to something else. What do you think Google should do, inside Mexico and out?
Inside Mexico they should name it whatever the Mexico calls it. Outside Mexico it should be called however it is called in the respective country.
But again, Google is based in the US, all their decisions are made there.
Yeah and its called Gulf of Mexico outside Mexico. Learning is hard
Yes, and in that case Google is taking a political stance by choosing to label “Gulf of America” outside the US.
If Google was based in Mexico and a similar thing happened, people in the US would be utterly outraged over politicizing geography. And it would be quite obvious they are signaling cooperation to the Mexican government.
I’m outside the U.S. and Mexico. This is what I see.
Incidentally, that is also what Mexicans see.
Trump and Google have decided that the whole world has to acknowledge Trump’s unilateral declaration.
The official name is the Gulf of Mexico. It doesn’t become a different name just because Trump declares it. It isn’t up to him.
The new name shows only for USA. In Mexico it’s unchanged, or shown with both names.
Our president is dumb and just wants to look like she’s fighting back without actually doing anything significant.
It’s showing up worldwide. Its why Mexico is threatening to sue.
Showing with both names does not make it any better and I’m not sure why you think it does. They’re just kowtowing to a unilateral decision made by one of the multiple countries that border the Gulf of Mexico.
I assume you would not want Taiwan to be called Chinese Taipei on Google Maps despite China calling it that.
Woah, who said I’m fine with that? I’m Mexican and very much resent the idiocy of Trump, but our president is also an idiot who “threatens” to do something, but I can assure you she will not actually do anything.
IMO she’s posturing to her base, but she says she might go against Google because she doesn’t dare to go against Trump, and she needs to look like she’s doing something.
Meanwhile, we have very urgent problems in Mexico like rampant crime, medicine scarcity, corruption, etc. that she doesn’t even mention in her daily morning speeches.
It already does