After Google Maps changed the name of the "Gulf of Mexico" to the "Gulf of America" to comply with President Donald Trump's executive order, people kept leaving negative reviews, and Google was not happy about it.
On Wednesday, Google updated the location’s name following President Donald Trump’s order to change it in official government records. Clicking on the label for the Gulf in Google Maps now displays a message stating, "posting is currently turned off."
Additionally, Google appears to have removed some negative reviews that surfaced after the name change. Social media users claim that hundreds of one-star reviews have been deleted, accusing Google of engaging in “censorship.” The most recent visible review for the location on Google Maps now dates back a month.
In response, critics have shifted to leaving negative, one-star ratings for the Google Maps app on Apple’s App Store, with several users calling the app and its labels “factually inaccurate.”
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As of Tuesday afternoon, the Gulf had a 4.5 out of 5-star rating. However, users were unable to leave new reviews for the renamed Gulf.
Google defended its move, saying it "regularly puts protections on places during times when we anticipate an uptick of contributions that are off-topic or unrelated to someone's direct experience with the place."
The company also referenced a blog post from 2023 that explains its approach to handling "policy-violating content," such as fraudulent reviews. The post details situations where it may restrict user contributions or take down content to prevent its tools from being exploited.
It notes:
"In circumstances that warrant protections, our wide range of techniques help prevent bad content from being contributed. We’ll continue to evolve our framework and invest in proactive ways to keep information on Maps helpful and reliable."
Many have criticized the company as a result.
Google's move came despite the concerns of Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, who in a letter to the company last month said the U.S. lacks the legal authority to rename the Gulf, as the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea limits a nation's sovereignty to just 12 nautical miles from its shoreline.
Sheinbaum condemned Google's decision, arguing that the company should not comply with "the mandate of a country" to rename "an international sea."
Google did not respond directly, only saying in a social media post that it has "a longstanding practice of applying name changes when they have been updated in official government sources."
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