this post was submitted on 13 Feb 2025

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135

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 Cat@ponder.cat to c/technology@lemmy.zip

17 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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.

all 18 comments

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[–] anon@lemmus.org 25 points 1 week ago

The companies that are doing it have done it voluntarily. Google and Apple are to blame for actually going along with this garbage.

[–] badbytes@lemmy.world 9 points 1 week ago

Don't know, but countries do provide a check/balance. Look at how Brazil twisted twitters arm and forced change. If our govt won't, glad another one stepped up to the challenge.

[–] AFC1886VCC@reddthat.com 8 points 1 week ago

Fuck culture wars

[–] PhilipTheBucket@ponder.cat 5 points 1 week ago (2 children)

WTF

Two stupids don't make a smart.

The government doesn't control the language, it doesn't control the encyclopedia. Behaving like it does (in either direction) is a surprisingly dangerous activity to normalize.

[–] lvxferre@mander.xyz 16 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Nah, Sheinbaum is in the right here.

It is not about controlling a language, but barring the attempts of someone else (Google Inc.) to control how multiple languages refer to international waters.

[+] Zorque@lemmy.world -8 points 1 week ago (3 children)

It's referred to as Gulf of Mexico in Mexico. Elsewhere it's referred to either Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America) or Gulf of America (Gulf of Mexico).

They didn't rename it for everyone, just for those living in jurisdictions falling under Car Salesman in Chief.

[–] lvxferre@mander.xyz 17 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Elsewhere it’s referred to either Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America) or Gulf of America (Gulf of Mexico).

Except that people don't call it "Gulf of America" in those other places, even if Google is going out of its way to list it as if they did. Google is dictating "you should consider this a valid alternate name for the gulf", and Sheinbaum is fighting against it.

[–] Zorque@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Google is dictating "This is how it's referred to by one of the two countries encompassing the gulf". Is it dumb as fuck? Sure. But they're not deciding that people should be using it, only that in official terms, that is one of the names.

That doesn't mean you have to like it, or that it shouldn't be fought against... but it's not like they're some malevolent actor trying to get one over on the righteous hero either.

[–] lvxferre@mander.xyz 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Google is dictating “This is how it’s referred to by one of the two countries encompassing the gulf”.

It's also dictating that one name should be seen as as valid as the other. When it's simply not the case.

it’s not like they’re some malevolent actor trying to get one over on the righteous hero either.

They're doing this because money. And it's still the wrong thing, regardless of "malevolence" or not.

[–] Zorque@lemmy.world -2 points 1 week ago (2 children)

This is not a righteous crusade for the downtrodden, you are not defending a moral outrage. It's a petty school yard slapfight.

It's annoying, but it's not diabolical. No one is functionally harmed by this, they just get a bruised ego.

On scales of capitalist damages in the world, this barely makes a ripple.

[–] lvxferre@mander.xyz 2 points 1 week ago

righteous crusade [...] moral outrage... [diabolical] ...

Now you're just putting words in my mouth.

[–] onlinepersona@programming.dev 1 points 1 week ago

As if you're on morally higher ground by defending the actions of corporations trying to appease a madman....

Anti Commercial-AI license

[–] FabledAepitaph@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

You're missing the entire point. What Trump did was petty af. Petty shit deserves to get smacked down from every possible angle. If more people stood up on principle like my new Mexican crush here, maybe they'd think twice before issuing their bullshit.

[–] Ledivin@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Who does, then? Google? Can they just change all the names to whatever they want? They're big enough that I bet most of them would slowly catch on and become vernacular

[–] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 week ago

I can't wait for this dump change to kick off WWIII

[–] Amoxtli@thelemmy.club -4 points 1 week ago

Such pettiness.