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.

  • catloaf@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    4
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    5 days ago

    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

    • knightly the Sneptaur@pawb.social
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      5 days ago

      Did you not read the page you linked?

      That org was “established in its present form by Public Law in 1947 to maintain uniform geographic name usage throughout the Federal Government.”

      It’s a standards-setting org that resolves differences between other agencies of the government when there is disagreement about a place name, it isn’t entitled to rename things everyone was already in agreement about, lol~

      • catloaf@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        arrow-down
        3
        ·
        5 days ago

        Yes, it sets the official name of each place. That’s what everyone here is talking about.

        • knightly the Sneptaur@pawb.social
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          5
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          5 days ago

          Again, read the page you linked:

          President Benjamin Harrison signed an Executive Order establishing the BGN and giving it authority to resolve unsettled geographic names questions.

          Key word: “unsettled”