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.
President of mexico is just showing themselves to be as big of a baby as trump. Best thing to do is ignore it. Its of such little importance.
It’s a US company following US policy as it’s a contract holder for the US Government they’re compelled to follow US policy. Whether anyone likes it or not, at least for right now, US policy is that the Gulf of Mexico for all intents and purposes is the Gulf of America.
President Sheinbaum can sue Google all she wants, but there’s no court that’s going to find that a US company complying with US policy is breaking the law.
So you are gonna have to provide a source explaining how the president using an executive order to rename international water is “policy” that Google must follow.
They you’ll have to explain why I, as a Canadian, have to see this stupid renaming in parentheses.
If the US truely doesn’t have a system beyond “once the president orders it, it’s renamed.” That’s their problem but I don’t give a fuck what they call things and I don’t know why google thinks I should.
So you are gonna have to provide a source explaining how the president using an executive order to rename international water is “policy” that Google must follow.
It’s the executive branch. It would be the same as if Congress did the same, and passed a law saying “The Gulf of Mexico is now the Gulf of America.” There’s no source required, it’s literally how the US Government works, but if you want one; American University Law Review (2009) - The Limits of Executive Power:
The President has broad discretion in choosing how to exercise these implied powers. Second, these implied powers are not plenary in nature. They are subject to three basic limitations: (1) the President may not, without congressional authorization, use these powers to change domestic law or create or alter existing legal obligations; (2) these powers are subject to regulation by Congress; and (3) in the event of a conflict between the exercise of these powers and congressional legislation, the latter prevails.
There’s no federal law establishing the name of the Gulf of Mexico, so there’s no conflict with the first limitation. No one in Congress is willing to stop him, so no conflict with the second. And there’s no conflict with existing congressional legislation, so there’s no conflict with the third. So therefore the executive order is within the power of the executive branch.
Because Google is a US company and operates within the US, it has to follow US policy. The President just changed US policy to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico… So they either have to comply or be sued by the executive for not following US policy–which they’ll lose.
They you’ll have to explain why I, as a Canadian, have to see this stupid renaming in parentheses.
Because again, Google is a US company. So if you want to see Gulf of Mexico again, use any map provider that isn’t from a US company.
If the US truely doesn’t have a system beyond “once the president orders it, it’s renamed.”
That’s an extreme oversimplification of what’s going on here. But it kinda outlines how important it is to elect good people, huh?
It’s a US company following US policy as it’s a contract holder for the US Government they’re compelled to follow US policy. Whether anyone likes it or not, at least for right now, US policy is that the Gulf of Mexico for all intents and purposes is the Gulf of America.
We have a bunch of amendments…go look at the first.
I think you KNOW it’s because Pichai was there and is part of that club now.
Actually the executive order only renames the parts that the US controls, and they don’t control the entire gulf
It doesn’t “rename” anything. It means the official US position is that the Gulf of Mexico doesn’t exist and instead it’s the Gulf of America. It’s not forcing anyone to call it that other than for official purposes–like in Governmental memos and official US documents–least of all foreign Governments or their people.
The US doesn’t own the Gulf. We can’t unilaterally change the name. But when the US Government officially refers to the Gulf, it will now be called the Gulf of America. That’s what the executive order did.
That’s literally what I said my dude, you’re just arguing semantics over the use of “renaming”
It’s not at all what you just said. Because it’s not renaming.
I honestly don’t know how to make this any simpler to digest for you. The EO changes the way the Gulf of Mexico is referenced in official correspondence for the Federal Government. It does not change the name for anyone but the federal government. That’s not the same as renaming it. The US doesn’t own it and can’t rename it.
Google is a Government contractor and is required to follow US policy to keep those contracts, which is why they’ve also changed it…
Truly I can’t make it any simpler.
I said it renames the part the US controls, this argument of renaming the entire thing is a figment of your imagination, or you’re replying to the wrong message. Replace “renamed” with “named” in my sentence and then you have no leg to stand on. Your example is stupid, china is not “a part the US controls”, please do not engage in replying to my comments if you’re just going to strawman me.
I said it renames the part the US controls
Okay, and yet again (and for the last time) this is incorrect. It doesn’t rename anything.
You could be wrong. While possibly justified on Google’s part, Mexico will most likely sue its Mexican affiliate, and if Google wishes to operate in Mexico, it will have to comply with orders from Mexican courts. See twitter and Brazil for similar case.
That’s fully within the right of Mexico as a country, but that has nothing to do with anything that I’ve said here.
Going forward, the official US policy (because of this executive order) is that it’s the Gulf of America. No amount of suing Google will change that.
Don’t sue- just threaten to block some of googles services in your country and they’ll come around real quick. Hit em where it hurts. Google isn’t hurting for lawyers.
You have to hit them in the wallet. Every time Trump does or says anything about tariffs, just starting increasing tariffs on all Tesla products.
We can’t hit Trump directly but we can hit his little friends quite easily.
Musk will have an absolute meltdown on twitter of course, but if you just ignore him he’ll give up. He’s already shown that he is prepared to back down if he’s actually facing financial penalties.
Tragically we have a dried apricot ceding power to the highest bidder. There isn’t much for other countries to do directly unless they are paying for “sock puppet time” or getting in a pissing match with a clown that makes a juggalo look smart.
This is more about controlling (collateral) damage: in this case megacorps “kissing the ring” via stupid shit like Google is doing presently. Countries can fuck with corporations far easier than we can (guess who paid for sock puppet time…)
Google is clearly attempting to make themselves more “saleable” to the ruling party by dropping things like month names or renaming universally accepted names of global features. Right now their -baseline- is where we are at currently. A lawsuit does next to nothing. It’s an operating cost. A country threatening to blacklist their service will hit them cleanly in the only thing that matters: their shareholders. Our biggest corporations have time and again rolled over for this tactic. They may have elevated themselves to a godlike status within the states but they are vulnerable outside our shores.
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.
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.
This is all so stupid and melodramatic.
That’s the point!
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.
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.
IIRC it only shows up that way for US users.
apparently that was either a lie or incomplete info
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
It already does
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.
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.
It’s showing up worldwide. Its why Mexico is threatening to sue.
Nah, they’re willing collaborators.
This is stupid and cowardly of them,
What else did you expect?
Don’t “threaten”. Any asshole can make a threat. GO AHEAD AND DO IT.
It looks like they’re giving the lawyers time to find legal arguments to file.
Though they could jusr ban Google from their country.
Don’t forget apple
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.
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.
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’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.
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
What else do people expect them to do?
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.
Besides, it still say Gulf of Mexico if you’re outside the USA.
If I’m a eg.: Colombian, it should be
“Gulf of Mexico”“Golfo de México” wherever I stand, not “Gulf of America”.OK, but how is Google supposed to know what nationality you are?
IP address, same way they decide what language to show the names in
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
Apply only the part of the name change that’s actually covered by US jurisdiction.
Strictly speaking, per the EO, this is what they should have done. The EO defines the area to be renamed as:
the U.S. Continental Shelf area bounded on the northeast, north, and northwest by the States of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida and extending to the seaward boundary with Mexico and Cuba in the area formerly named as the Gulf of Mexico
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.
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.
What are the rules? And who makes them?
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
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.
the government of the USA has changed the name
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.
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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.
to allow citizens to call things whatever they want.
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.
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Tianamen square shows up just fine on Google maps, who is supposedly censoring them?
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Executive orders are not laws. You do know that, right?
Funny thing - I just checked yandex maps (because I’m bored) and it still shows “gulf of mexico” on it.
Who owns Yandex? Why would they need to pledge fealty to the new king?
I believe its a Russian company
Right, so why would they?
Putin and Trump are best friends so you might expect Russia to follow. But perhaps Putin wants to show he’s the dominant one in said relationship.
I don’t think Russians want to follow the US at every move. At least, they only seem to do it at their convenience.
But the US isn’t the one calling the shots.
Restrict Google from doing business.in the country altogether.
Have phones switch to some open non Google platform
Fuck google, microsoft, apple, they’re all evil at this point
I’m curious - how would they just “have phones switch”, and if that’s actually possible, to which “open non Google platform”?
Some android phones can run graphene OS, which is a privacy fork of android if I understand it correctly. Regulation to open bootloaders from manufacturers wanting to sell in the Mexican market would probably be possible. Might be the only good thing to come out of this if countries start regulating openness.
As a mexican I second this thought
Maybe this is the thing that finally unites the cartels.
Less threatening… More doing.
The U.S. dictatorship are just doing and they’re slowly tearing apart OUR planet.
Bro, are you ok? “US dictayorship”? Trump was elected by the majority of Americans. How is Trump destroying YOUR planet? By changing the name of the gulf? Is this the biggest problem “your” planet has?
Fukin soypeople…
You need actual therapy
He literally said he would be a dictator if elected.
Maybe pay attention rather than hurl silly insults.
Trump said on the “day one” he referred to, he would use his presidential powers to close the southern border with Mexico
That’s from article you linked. Maybe read the content of the articles you link to, not just the headlines.
It’s day 25. So Trump broke his campaign pledge to be dictator “only” on day one.
How? What makes him a dictator today?
What doesnt? You have a billionaire giving him orders who wasnt even elected
I read it. How does that mean he didn’t literally say he would be a dictator if elected? That was one of the examples he gave of how he would be a dictator.
He said “for one day, in order to secure the border with Mexico”. Let’s completely ignore that and run with the headline that supports your view, right?
I did the exact opposite of completely ignoring it. I literally said, “that was one of the examples he gave of how he would be a dictator.”
Weird to accuse me of ignoring something I addressed directly. I’m not sure what you hoped to achieve.
Dude, you are taking words out of context, you aren’t addressing anything. You read the word “dictator”, saw red in front of your eyes and ran with it.
Oh yeah, I forgot. Implying people enjoy soy is an insult. Ouch! My feelings.
I never said Dictayorship. Because that’s terrible spelling of the only word you needed to spell correctly to actually criticise me. I also never linked the mislabeling of the Gulf as destroying the planet. He is though…
He proclaimed that he will “OWN” Gaza through means of literal ethnic cleansing. He’s conspiring with Putin to help finalise his invasion of eastern Ukraine. He’s currently purging the Government of minorities and people he deems unloyal. Elon Musk is infiltrating and tearing up government departments as an unelected right-hand entity. His right-wing army are, by algorithm, shifting the western world easily into fascism. I could go on but I’m done with you.
Bottom line… pay attention.
Also… the fact that you put forward Trump was elected by majority of Americans is a straight out lie. Grow up.
Oh, I mistyped a word, while writing on my phone. That means I’m wrong, who did I miss that?!
Its also funny how you say Trump “is infiltrating and tearing down government departments”. Bro, he’s the president, everything he’s doing it’s in his powers. Did the previous president also “infiltrate” the government departments?
He’s “purging” the DEI hires, the people who are there just because of their skin color or sexual preferences, did you forget how the former white house speaker was “the first gay black woman”? That’s the only thing that recomended her.
I’m really curious how Trump being elected by the majority of the Americans is a lie, please enlighten me.
Proud soyboi checkin in
I like edamame and fried tofu. Does that make me one too?
Soybois unite!
PLEASE.DO IT
class action please, so we can let our powers combine
Why bother with this? If you want to make a point, pass regulation in Mexico to call E.E.U.U. (US in Mexico) be called Northern Mexico. Then Google is forced to comply on that territory like they claim they do for disputed sections when maps are viewed from that region. It would make for some funny reactions from people visiting Cancun or Puerto Vallarta.
Edit: plus it would show how stupid the whole rename thing is to begin with.
If we’re going to play that demagogic game, why not make “United States of America” be shown as “United States of North America” to reclaim the continent name back? Companies will comply if it’s an official request.
They are both states united and in north america…
Es el chapulín colorado
No contaban con mi astucia!
Currently in Mexico, it displays the name your phone region is set to. It still shows Gulf of America on my phone, even when I am on Mexican WiFi.
Google is one of many propaganda arms of the US govt. I highly doubt they’d comply with that as it doesn’t fit in with their political agenda.
At that point they would be like twitter in Brazil when they didn’t comply with fines and were blocked at the country level: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5y06vzk3yjo
TIL…
The abbreviation E.E.U.U. (often written as EE. UU.) stands for Estados Unidos (United States) in Spanish. This abbreviation follows a grammatical rule in Spanish where doubling the initial letters of each word indicates plurality
So you taught me something today I did not know. Thank you!!
That rule existed in Portuguese as well, but they dropped that as indication of plurality is just… wasteful
Just let our mexican and Canadian neighbors take over the USA. We’ve proven to be unworthy of making wise choices.
Interestingly (or not) it’s also used in French but only in one case that I’m aware of. Monsieur is abbreviated to M. while messieurs (plural) is MM.
Oh, 2 M’s touch.
I always wondered why it had double letters. Thank you!
See, I learned this in Spanish class in my American high school, and I don’t think that linguistic fact stuck with me! Thanks
Wait what do they call the European Union then because that’s still EU in Spanish as well.
It’s UE in Spanish, from Unión Europea. (Non-doubled letters because it’s a single Union, there’s no plural like in “States”).
Sometimes people in Spain do use the English acronyms for both EU/USA, but I don’t think I’ve seen it often. Both UE and EEUU are more common from what I’ve seen, and also people rarely say these out loud, it’s exclusively a written language problem.
FUCK YEAH, DO IT DO IT FUCKING DO IT! Please sue the fuck outta those shitfucks!
