this post was submitted on 13 Feb 2025
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Mexican President Threatens to Sue Google Over 'Gulf of America' Label on Maps. (www.commondreams.org)
submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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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.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago (2 children)

if im not mistaken, i think i heard google pulls the data from some external database, which changed the name. google didnt change shit, rather the database they use did.

i could be wrong, but i could have sworn i read that somewhere.

also seems rather petty to me to sue an american company for following US policy changes.

to be clear, i think the gulf of america thing is stupid as hell, and petty on trump's part.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago (2 children)

US policy doesn't get to dictate how websites operate in non US jurisdiction. The US acting like it gets to bully the rest world into doing whatever it wants is the whole issue at hand. That's the point: the trump admin wants to use US influence to intimidate, bully, and antagonize other countries by disrespecting their sovereignty.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

yes, i agree. but look at the link i posted. they still show it as gulf of mexico if you're in mexico accessing maps.

my point is more that the US has changed the name of the gulf in the US. it is very stupid and meaningless, but it is still officially renamed.

if i look at japan in google maps it says japan, not nipon. why? because that's what we call it here. i personally think thats dumb too. we should call countries things by their real names. deutschland, bharat, suomi, etc

nevertheless the gulf is called the gulf of america here, no matter how dumb that is.

i seriously doubt google, who is under active investigation for monopoly and being threatened to be broken up, AND, recently lifted its ban on using its ai in weapons, is interested in keeping the old name of the gulf in protest against trump.

again, i think this entire situation is stupid, and would prefer everyone call it the gulf of mexico, but i also don't think google specifically is doing anything wrong in this specific instance. google is doing plenty else wrong that matters much more.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago

US policy doesn’t get to dictate how websites operate in non US jurisdiction

It shows gulf of Mexico outside of the US