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.
It shows up as “Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America)” outside of the US apparently. That seems like enough to make a fuss to me; bodies of international water have specific rules around name changes and the US can’t unilaterally decide differently.
This is accurate. Here’s a screenshot from my friend in France.
Ok, that’s absurd. I thought it makes sense to change the name for people in the US if that’s the official name in the US (according to the USGS data, which has always been the official source for this info). But translating the US name into other languages that already have a name for it makes no sense.
Google is evil.
They did change that line from “do no evil” to “do any profitable amount of evil”, so this is fair play.
I’m a mexican in mexico, my phone’s in japanese and it still shows as gulf of mexico
Ha. I speak Spanish and Japanese. My girlfriend lives in Jilatopec. Sheinbaum está furiosa con Trump y me encanta.
americans can call it whatever the fuck they want, that wont suddenly change its local or english name in any other countries
Imagine being a tourist in the US, looking for an address you believe to be say, Martin Luther King Street. Can’t find it anywhere, even on Google maps, then eventually you talk to someone and find out it’s now called Elon Musk Avenue.
Not saying this is exactly the same, but if we’re letting people change the names of places on commonly used global map software willy nilly, even if it’s just region to region, we’re gonna end up with problems. It’s not like “freedom fries” back in the day that legitimately affected no one.
And I am suddenly seeing a parenthetical on the Gulf here outside the US, so there technically was a sudden change
The issue is the US does not own the gulf whereas they own the streets.
True. Guess it’s more like them getting Google to change Greenland into West Alaska
East? It’s east of Alaska…
I’d like to say I did that on purpose to show how dumb they’d be renaming it, but it is I who can’t remember my East and West
Was going to say, it’s West if you go far enough
Semisopochnoi Island in Alaska with gps coordinates 51°57′42″N 179°46′23″E – easternmost point in all U.S. territory by longitude. https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/the-easternmost-point-in-north-america-is-actually-west-of-alaska.html
What are the rules? And who makes them?
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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.
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
Dicktater brought to mind very unpleasant images
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.
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.
I hope that along with the next president’s EO (assuming we don’t have a dictator) to change the name back, it also changes the name of a tiny garbage parcel of land that’s uninhabitable due to lead or an old chemical spill to something like “greasy orange fief”.
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
That shows where you are, not who you are.
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 @Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee to write “head of government of the USA has changed the name”?
give them a break!
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
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.
Executive orders are not laws. You do know that, right?
Why didn’t they change it only in the US and not elsewhere? Could you imagine the uproar if Google censored Tiananmen Square world wide because of the Chinese government?
PS: Yes it was modified for everyone outside the US too. I am not American but your “president” is now allowed to change what name I have to call something?
Because Google is a US company, and not in a position to tell the US government to take a walk, that’s why.
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?
Did the US government tell Google to censor Tiannamen Square, or are they a global company that has to observe more than the whims of a single country?
I hope other countries start renaming the US soon.
Tianamen square shows up just fine on Google maps, who is supposedly censoring them?
Travel to Beijing, open up Google search, and see if it gives you any historically accurate results about what happened there.
I’m serious, it sounds like you could use a lesson in freedom and the world outside your country.
Are you going to chip in for my air fare?