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Mexican President Threatens to Sue Google Over 'Gulf of America' Label on Maps. (www.commondreams.org)

submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

384 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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.

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 week ago

I prefer the name "golfo del gringo loco"

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago (8 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 week ago (5 children)

Actually the executive order only renames the parts that the US controls, and they don't control the entire gulf

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[–] [email protected] 38 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Ive been already boycotting google, amazon, facebook, reddit. Yall need to get on it

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 week ago (2 children)

My phone is a Pixel on Google Fi, and I have a YouTube premium account. I've got a lot of work ahead of me :( lol

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 week ago

Yeah its actually insane how far Googles reach has gotten

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 week ago (7 children)

Nah. I'll start boycotting google when there are useful alternatives. Amazon, facebook, reddit - no problem.

Google search - fine, I can get by with DDG or Yandex. Gmail - sure, whatever. Maps? Organic Maps (and other openstreetmaps front-ends) works alright for getting your bearings, but it's a far cry from useful for finding businesses, and terrible for navigation. Waze used to be the only viable alternative, but ever since Google bought them, it's hard to justify a full boycott without massively inconveniencing myself.

Same for meta as a whole. Facebook and Instagram, sure, no need. But living without whatsapp is simply impossible in some countries, where it's the de-facto standard for communication, and even used as the only means of contact with government agencies.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Fr, I try, but it’s really not possible to get away from these companies.

Nobody wants signal, nobody wants mastodon, nobody wants or frankly can use openstreetmaps. Alternatives are just not good enough

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Alternatives are just not good enough

And to no fault of their own of course. They just aren't working with the same resources as Google and the others.

I think it's more a question of stepping down our level of comfort at this point. Can we live without a particular service that Google provides, when there are no alternatives with feature parity? Or can we live with the fact that some of the features aren't working as well or missing, and use the alternatives anyway?