In addition to presenting himself as El Salvador of Tiktok, one of the first measures that Donald Trump took at the start of his second term as president of the United States focused on something much more traditional: change Names that appear on the cards. More specifically, the most controversial change affects the Gulf of Mexico, which through a decree It is now called the Gulf of America.
Obviously, the new name has not been well received in the world How far the power of Donald Trump reaches And who was going to follow the game. And it is that changing the name of a location is not something as simple as putting a new one, in particular on the territory shared by several countries, and there has several international treaties to take into account. But above all, what most people wondered: if I look for the Gulf of Mexico on Google Maps, what name will it appear?
Now Google has given the answer, in a publication in its official account X (former Twitter), perhaps trying to anticipate inevitable criticism, both on one side and another. In a rare transparency exercise, Google explained how it decides the names that appear on their cards and why, for millions of users, The Gulf of Mexico will now appear as the Gulf of America.
Technically, Google will not directly follow Donald Trump's direct decree; But in practice, he will perform the changes you have ordered They will appear in official government sources. More specifically, for the United States, Google follows the directives of the GNIS (Information System on Geographic Names, Information System on Geographic Names), the government organization which establishes the norm to name locations and territories in the United States.
As the GNI will have to change the name in the Golfe of America for this decree, Google Maps will also show this name in this place, Erasure of the name of the Gulf of Mexico “quickly”In Google's words. However, the company quickly said that this change will only affect users in the United States.
Google Maps shows the name “Gulfo de México” when you visit Europe
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And Google has a “usual practice” when names vary between countries. In this situation, Google Maps displays the local name to users of each country. SO, In Mexico, the location continues to appear in the name of “Gulf de México”And it won't change. As for the rest of the world which has no official name for the location, Google Maps has the policy of showing the two names, in this case, “Gulf of Mexico / Gulf of America” or vice versa. When writing these words, the location always shows the name “Gulf of Mexico” during the Spanish visit.
Google wanted to give a message of impartiality and normality; And this is not the first time that the company has faced a change of name made unilaterally by a government. In these cases, the company's policy consists of detect the location of the user to show you the borders and official names declared by his government.
For example, after the 2014 Crimea invasion, Google showed the peninsula within the framework of Russian territory, but only if it is visited in Russia; If the user was Ukrainian, he was shown as part of Ukraine. Of Europe and the rest of the world, Crimea was like Litigation territoryWith a discontinuous line showing its borders.
It is also the same way as, controversial, Ceuta and Melilla are shown, for the dispute between Morocco and Europe in these autonomous cities. SO, The situation in the Gulf of Mexico is not new to GoogleAnd the company hopes that your practice of not taking sides will contain everyone; Something which, judging by reactions in social networks, does not get.
