this post was submitted on 11 Feb 2025
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Google officially changes the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America on Maps (www.usatoday.com)
submitted 18 hours ago by return2ozma@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] sem@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

The American president can only order so much. As of yesterday, the BGN has changed the name, but this affects Federal Government usage. Google as a private company could continue to use the common name if they wanted to.

This is why Open Street Maps has a "name" field and "official name" field, for where these two aren't the same. This is already the case for the English names "Saigon" and "Ho Chi Minh City" which refer to the same place in Vietnam.

[–] tias@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

Well, that's apparently for the courts to decide. In the meantime they have an executive order to contend with. Google has reclassified the U.S. as a "sensitive country" along with other authoritarian regimes and I'm convinced that this is partly out of concern for the safety of Google employees. Who knows what maga cultists might do if they don't comply.

[–] sem@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

Personally I think that obeying in advance only makes it a riskier place for the employees, but it is not my decision to make.

Regardless, I don't see what issue the courts would have with a private company using the common name of a geographical feature instead of the official government name. That would be a violation of the 1st amendment protection of free speech from government intervention.