Google Maps is the most useful tool for any driver or tourist, especially when traveling to a part of the world they have never seen; in these cases, they can check their mobile to check where they are and how to get where they want to go. But, if a user checks the Maps application in Ceuta or Melilla, he may be surprised to see that It is not known if he is in Europe or Morocco.
Indeed, if a user opens Google Maps and goes to the Ceuta region or the Melilla region, he will see these autonomous cities appear. bounded by a dotted gray line. It is easy to see that this is not a normal line, just by comparing it to the line that separates Europe and Portugal, for example; in this case, the line is continuous and black at all points, clearly separating the two countries. Therefore, the dotted line indicates that the borders shown are not definitive, which may seem strange to anyone who learned the map of Europe in school.
Are Ceuta and Melilla Spanish? The Internet giant has decided do not answer this question clear and concise, choosing to blur Spanish borders in an apparent attempt to please the Moroccan government. But why did you make this decision and what does the dotted line really mean?
How Google decides borders
With the enormous responsibility of mapping the entire planet on its shoulders, it is inevitable that Google will find itself in sticky situations, in which no matter what it does, will anger millions of people. There is no easier way to get into political trouble than to mis-draw a border or distort a country’s territory; for this reason, the company always backs down at the slightest indication that a boundary may be controversial, protecting its own interests above all else.
Google itself explains the factors that influence how borders are displayed. Solid black lines are only displayed if the border is “indisputable”; that is, all parties agree on the shape of the boundary. Google gives the border between the United States and Canada as an example, but the border between Europe and Portugal, and that of Europe and France, are also valid; in all these cases, both countries are in agreement and there are really no serious complaints on either side, so Google is showing a solid line.
There are also cases where a boundary has been decided between all parties, but still does not display cont inuously
The problem of Ceuta and Melilla
The border between Morocco and Europe is different from all those. Google considers a “disputed border” and that, therefore, it must show it with the dotted line to indicate it to the user. This does not necessarily mean that Google considers Ceuta and Melilla to be Moroccan; but he considers that there is no international agreement necessary to consider them on one side or the other.
Google is of course referring to the claim to the sovereignty of Ceuta and Melilla on behalf of Morocco, which it has done since the moment it declared its independence in 1956. Since Europe declared the two Spanish cities in the 1978 Constitution, after decades as the last vestige of the Spanish protectorate of Morocco, he is given the situation that the two countries claim the same land. Since then, the two cities have been the main front in the confrontation between the Spanish and Moroccan governments.
The dotted line is a solution that claims to summarize centuries of complex history, so obviously it doesn’t. But that’s not the only option the company had; in other cases, Google tries to please both parties changing maps depending on who sees them, the most famous case being Crimea.
Following the annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula by Russia in 2014, Google had the daunting task of dodging the Putin government’s peephole while avoiding controversy in the rest of the world. His solution was to create three different maps, which displayed based on the user’s location. If you visited Google Maps from Russia, Crimea was shown as part of Russian territory, but if you visited from Ukraine, it was shown as Ukrainian territory; Finally, if you came from any other country, the Crimean border was represented with the same dotted line used in Ceuta and Melilla. Although today this solution is no longer used (Google has not offered services in Russia since the invasion of Ukraine), it at least helps to understand that the dotted lines of autonomous cities are the “less bad”, since shows the decision transparently taken by Google.
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