Mexico is suing Google over how it’s labeling the Gulf of Mexico
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum announced Friday that her government is suing Google for relabeling the Gulf of Mexico as “Gulf of America” for US users, CBS News reports. The company had done so in Google Maps after President Trump ordered the name change at the beginning of his Presidential term.
The lawsuit makes good on Sheinbaum’s February threat that Mexico would “proceed to court” if the company didn’t change the name, which it kept as Gulf of Mexico for users in Mexico, but switched to “Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America)” in regions outside of the two countries. According to a machine-translated transcript of Sheinbaum’s Friday press briefing, she says “the only thing we want is compliance with the decree issued by the United States government,” which, she adds, “wouldn’t have the authority to name the entire Gulf, because that is an international attribution.”
President Sheinbaum continues:
We couldn’t say anything about changing the name of a state, a mountain, or a lake. So, the part of their territory that corresponds to them can be called whatever they decide. The part that corresponds to Mexico can’t be renamed. The part that corresponds to Cuba can’t be renamed, either. So, what we’re saying is, “Google, stick to what the United States government approved.”
Prior to her briefing, Mexico sent letters to Google asking it not to label its territorial waters as Gulf of America, and Sheinbaum shared a reply from Google VP of government affairs and public policy Cris Turner stating the company had no plans to change its policy. CBS News notes that the US House passed a bill on Thursday that would codify the name change.
The Trump administration has been insistent that non-government entities honor the Gulf of America moniker, even barring The Associated Press from Oval Office press briefings when the outlet refused to use the new name in initial reporting — a ban that a federal judge ordered last month be dropped. Among tech companies, Google was one of the first tech to comply with Trump’s wishes, altering the Gulf of Mexico’s name to Gulf of America in app and browser versions of Google Maps by February 10th. Apple soon followed suit. MapQuest, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to have given in, and has a site specifically making light of the name change.
Google did not immediately respond to The Verge’s request for comment.