- cross-posted to:
- [email protected]
- cross-posted to:
- [email protected]
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.
It was changed by executive order, which the president has the authority to do. Google doesn’t get to go “nuh-uh” and keep it the same.
I was unaware that the executive branch encompassed the entirety of the government. Please, do elaborate.
If you want to know more about how the US government works, I’m not the person to educate you.
Then why are you here trying to tell people that one asshole with an opinion is the government?
You can argue with strangers on the Internet as much as you like, but the fact is, the US president can and has changed the name of multiple geographic features, and arguing with me won’t change that.
Oh, you’ve been caught being dumb and your story is changing.
First it was “the government”, now it’s “the president”.
That’s not how America works, lol. Naming things is a legislative responsibility. Trump can sign as many executive orders as he wants, but it isn’t official without an act of congress and a chance for the judiciary to object.
potus is the “head of government”. Would you prefer @[email protected] to write “head of government of the USA has changed the name”?
give them a break!
That would be less inaccurate, lol.
And no. I’ll be a pedantic asshole to anyone who pretends that Trump is anything other than one of President Musk’s assistants.
i feel your pain and disillusionment but it is what it is. The real “asshole” is changing the world with his Sharpie.
Good luck to you for the next 4 years
Yes, and Congress delegated that authority in 1947 via Public Law 242, creating the US Board on Geographic Names, under the Secretary of the Interior, part of the executive branch. The President has the authority to direct the Secretary.
You can speak as confidently as you like, but you’re still wrong. Feel free to learn: https://www.usgs.gov/us-board-on-geographic-names
Did you not read the page you linked?
That org was “established in its present form by Public Law in 1947 to maintain uniform geographic name usage throughout the Federal Government.”
It’s a standards-setting org that resolves differences between other agencies of the government when there is disagreement about a place name, it isn’t entitled to rename things everyone was already in agreement about, lol~
Yes, it sets the official name of each place. That’s what everyone here is talking about.
The president is part of the government, they’re not two separate entities.
And once again, there is nothing to be gained by arguing with me about this.
You underestimate how much I enjoy arguing with people on the internet, lol.
So is this your admission that your earlier statement was false, or are you still pretending that “part of” is the same thing as “all”?
He’s the part of the government that has the power to unilaterally change the name of a location.
Clearly, since you think an executive order is a law.
Why didn’t they change it only in the US and not elsewhere? Could you imagine the uproar if Google censored Tiananmen Square world wide because of the Chinese government?
PS: Yes it was modified for everyone outside the US too. I am not American but your “president” is now allowed to change what name I have to call something?
Because Google is a US company, and not in a position to tell the US government to take a walk, that’s why.
I mean, they are to an extent. The laws of the US are ostensibly supposed to allow citizens to call things whatever they want. If the government wants to throw a hissy fit and say the constitution is meaningless after all, let them do it. At least then we could give up all of the pretense that they are supposed to care about what it says.
I very much doubt that privilege extends to a mapmaker
Why wouldn’t it? Google’s just a company, not an arm of the government. At best, maybe there is some sort of accreditation process to have their maps called “authentic” or “accurate” or whatnot, but I’ve never heard of any US law that penalizes the publication of an inaccurate map.
Are you seriously suggesting nothing whatsoever would happen if Google just didn’t update their maps to the new name?
I’m suggesting that if Trump wants to cross the Rubicon, let Trump be the one to cross it. No need to meet him on the other side first.
In theory yes, Google should face no consequences for publishing an inaccurate map. There’s actually an old tradition of publishing maps with at least 1 inaccuracy in order to catch forgeries, which has never been a legal issue in the US. It shouldn’t be any more controversial than a published document choosing to call Jerusalem “Al-Quds”
In practice, I imagine Trump will throw a tantrum and try to argue that Google doesn’t have the right to say no to him. And if that’s the stance he wants to take, disregarding the constitutional protections that Google ought to have, let his administration waste time and resources arguing that in the courts. If he wins, then we can all stop pretending the constitution means anything, and if he loses, it’s a blow to his ego, resources wasted, and we can turn the focus on other companies to say they have an ethical obligation to change the names back.
Did the US government tell Google to censor Tiannamen Square, or are they a global company that has to observe more than the whims of a single country?
I hope other countries start renaming the US soon.
Tianamen square shows up just fine on Google maps, who is supposedly censoring them?
Travel to Beijing, open up Google search, and see if it gives you any historically accurate results about what happened there.
I’m serious, it sounds like you could use a lesson in freedom and the world outside your country.
Are you going to chip in for my air fare?
Executive orders are not laws. You do know that, right?