The President of Mexico is considering suing Google for renaming the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America on its maps at the behest of Donald Trump.
Claudia Sheinbaum said on Thursday her government is considering legal avenues to restore the previous name on Google Maps.
‘We are going to wait. We are already seeing, observing what this would mean from the perspective of legal advice, but we hope that they will make a revision,’ she said.
It comes after President Donald Trump declared the Gulf of Mexico would be renamed via an executive order upon returning to the White House.
‘We’re going to be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, which has a beautiful ring. That covers a lot of territory,’ he said.
‘The Gulf of America. What a beautiful name. And it’s appropriate.’
In response, Google updated its Google Maps app to ensure users within the Unted States see ‘Gulf of America.’
Outside of the US, all users will see both names – including those living in Mexico.
Claudia Sheinbaum said on Thursday her government is considering legal avenues to restore the previous name on Google Maps
Google updated its Google Maps app to ensure users within the Unted States see ‘Gulf of America’
Sheinbaum argued the term Gulf of Mexico has long been internationally recognized and accepted.
‘All we are asking of Google is to look at the decree that the White House released and that President Donald Trump signed,’ she said.
‘You’ll see in that decree that it does not refer to the whole gulf.
‘If necessary, we will file a civil suit. Our legal area is already looking into what that would mean, but we hope that (Google) reconsiders.’
It comes as Google faces significant backlash for following President Trump’s orders.
Critical voters plotted on Reddit to force Google to return the name by bombarding the platform with negative feedback about the change.
Instead, they noticed their comments and backlash was swiftly deleted, and eventually the feature to comment and review had been disabled.
A spokesperson for the tech company told Forbes: ‘We regularly put protections in places during times when we anticipate an uptick of contributions that are off-topic or unrelated to someone’s direct experience with the place.’
It comes after President Donald Trump declared the Gulf of Mexico would be renamed via an executive order upon returning to the White House
In a post on X, Google added: ‘We’ve received a few questions about naming within Google Maps. We have a longstanding practice of applying name changes when they have been updated in official government sources.’
The company explained it draws from the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS), which would have updated the name per Trump’s order.
‘Also longstanding practice: When official names vary between countries, Maps users see their official local name. Everyone in the rest of the world sees both names,’ the company wrote on X.
The Trump administration announced on Friday that it had officially changed the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the ‘Gulf of America,’ as well as the Alaskan peak Denali to ‘Mount McKinley.’
Similarly, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has fallen into line with the rulings, sending out a notice confirming that its systems were in the process of updating both names.
‘Please be advised that the FAA is in the process of updating our data and charts to show a name change from the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America and a name change from Denali to Mount McKinley,’ the notice said.
