Mexico is suing Google over ‘Gulf of America’ identify change for US customers

The Mexican authorities has filed a lawsuit in opposition to Google for renaming the Gulf of Mexico because the Gulf of America in Maps inside the USA. Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum mentioned throughout a press convention that the lawsuit has already been filed, however as The Guardian notes, she did not say when and the place it was submitted. Sheinbaum argued that the Trump administration’s order for a reputation change solely applies to the US portion of the oceanic basin and that the US authorities would not have the authority to rename the entire physique of water. “All we would like is for the decree issued by the US authorities to be complied with,” she mentioned.

Google renamed the Gulf of Mexico into the Gulf of America for customers who open Maps within the US again in February. It first announced that it was going to take action the earlier month and mentioned it was solely ready for the US authorities to make the change official within the Geographic Names Data System (GNIS), which serves because the “federal and nationwide commonplace for geographic nomenclature.” BBC mentioned the Mexican authorities wrote to Google on the time to get it to rethink earlier than ultimately threatening authorized motion.

When Google introduced the identify change for US customers, it defined that it was following a longstanding observe to point out official native names for locations in Maps once they range between international locations. In Mexico, the basin remains to be known as the Gulf of Mexico, whereas it exhibits up as “Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America)” for customers exterior each international locations.