Google has admitted to quietly deleting negative comments and reviews over renaming the Gulf of Mexico to ‘Gulf of America’ on its platforms.
The updated name appeared on Google Maps for app users in the US earlier this week, following Trump’s executive order to rename the body of water.
However, Google faced backlash for the move and was bombarded with fuming reactions, resulting in the feature to be disabled for the location.
Ways to target the tech giant were discussed on planforms like Reddit, with some hoping an onslaught of outrage would trigger the name to be changed back.
‘Mine says Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America). How do we report this error to Google? There is no such place as Gulf of America, someone at Google has made a mistake?’ one person wrote.
‘Some kind of mass reporting would be awesome,’ another said. ‘I left feedback to alert them it’s mislabeled.’
‘Everyone submit feedback to Google on it, at least make it a pain in the ass for them,’ one suggested.
But soon enough, people began saying that their comments were being deleted, and eventually the feature to comment and review had been disabled.
‘It won’t let me do it. I get a message saying they don’t allow editing in the region “yet”,’ one user pointed out.
‘Google is unfortunately deleting reviews for it en masse.’
‘I’m a local guide, normally I can suggest edits and have gotten a few through. It flat out doesn’t give me an option for this,’ another said.
‘They didn’t just rename it. They have locked down all comments inside Google Maps Help community. They are blocking all dissent,’ one claimed.
‘They turned [feedback] function off. It won’t give me the option to suggest an edit,’ another user commented.
As concern began to grow online about being unable to post reviews or comments, 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.’
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.’
Trump’s order for the name changes came hours after he took office on January 20 amid a flurry of other executive orders pushed through.
Mexico, which like the U.S. has a long coastline circling the body of water, has said the Gulf of Mexico name is internationally recognized and has been used as a maritime navigational reference going back hundreds of years. Pictured the blue waters of the Gulf
His administration’s Interior Department said in a statement in January: ‘As directed by the President, the Gulf of Mexico will now officially be known as the Gulf of America and North America’s highest peak will once again bear the name Mount McKinley.’
North America’s highest peak had been named after US President William McKinley before but was reversed to its original indigenous name Denali in 1975 at the state’s request.
The department claimed the name changes were in an effort to preserve ‘the extraordinary heritage of the United States’ for future generations.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum jokingly suggested in January that North America, including the United States, be renamed ‘Mexican America’ – a historic name used on an early map of the region.
While Trump can direct the U.S. Geological Survey to change how it denotes the Gulf of Mexico, such a name change would be unlikely to be recognized internationally.
Mexico, which like the U.S. has a long coastline circling the body of water, has said the Gulf of Mexico name is internationally recognized and has been used as a maritime navigational reference going back hundreds of years.
Deep-sea ecologist Andrew Thaler said Trump’s declaration was ‘very silly’ and would likely be ignored by maritime professionals.
‘The Gulf of Mexico, however, is a body of water that borders several countries and includes pockets of high seas,’ said Thaler, founder of Blackbeard Biologic Science and Environmental Advisors.
‘There really isn’t any precedent for a US president renaming international geologic and oceanographic features. Any attempt to rename the entire Gulf of Mexico would be entirely symbolic,’ he said.
The President’s press secretary Karoline Leavitt issued a stark warning yesterday to reporters about recognizing the officially changed names.
Leavitt made the declaration when asked about the decision to ban the Associated Press from two presidential events on Tuesday.
The news organization had refused to recognize the Gulf of Mexico as the ‘Gulf of America’ following the executive order.
She added: ‘I was very upfront in my briefing on day one, that if we feel that there are lies being pushed by outlets in this room, we are going to hold those lies accountable.’
The Associated Press was in Leavitt’s briefing on Wednesday with a correspondent seated in the news agency’s usual front row seat.
Leavitt did not call on the AP reporter to ask a question.
Later on Wednesday, an AP reporter was excluded when journalists were called into the Oval Office for Tulsi Gabbard’s swearing-in as Director of National Intelligence.
AP executive editor Julie Pace sent a letter to White House chief of staff Susie Wiles objecting to the outlet being blocked from events.
She wrote: ‘It is among the most basic tenets of the First Amendment that the government cannot retaliate against the public or the press for what they say.’
The news organization said on Tuesday that it was ‘informed by the White House that if AP did not align its editorial standards with President Donald Trump’s executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America, AP would be barred from accessing an event in the Oval Office.’
Pace called the decision ‘alarming,’ a violation of the First Amendment and impeding the public’s access to independent news.
An AP reporter was also banned on Tuesday from covering Trump’s Oval Office meeting with Elon Musk, and when the president greeted returned American hostage Marc Foley later that evening. An AP photographer was present for both events.
Leavitt blasted the AP for not using ‘Gulf of America’ in its coverage, saying it was important that ‘we get it right.’
She said: ‘It is a fact that the body of water off the coast of Louisiana is called the Gulf of America, and I’m not sure why news outlets don’t want to call it that, but that is what it is.’