Mexico’s filed his country’s first anti-trust lawsuit against Google. This comes after the tech giant’s recent controversial move to rebrand the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America” on its Maps platform for users in the U.S. This move follows a decree issued by former President Donald Trump on his first day in office back in January 2017, where he argued that the name change was warranted because the U.S. “do most of the work there, and it’s ours.”
The Gulf of Mexico is home to the United States, Cuba, and Mexico. This region has for centuries been known by its indigenous name. Trump’s executive order didn’t just make it a suggestion. It required that federal agencies start using the new terms. In another positive and closely related action, the now Republican-led House of Representatives voted unanimously to officially rename the Gulf for federal government use. To improve understanding for users from other countries, Google Maps has decided to label the Gulf as the “Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America). In the interim, it still uses the old name for Mexican users.
This amendment triggered a quick and urgent push-back response from Mexican officials. In the face of growing pressure, in January, President Claudia Sheinbaum wrote a letter to Google. She called on the company to reverse its plan to change American users’ accounts to X. Her message was aimed as much at the decree’s implications for the home market as for their impact on Mexico’s sovereignty.
“All we want is for the decree issued by the US government to be complied with.” – President Claudia Sheinbaum
Despite Sheinbaum’s attempts at dialogue, Google has reportedly ignored repeated requests from the Mexican government to revert to the original naming convention. As a result, in February, Sheinbaum announced that she was considering taking legal action against Google over its inability to respond to Mexico’s requests.
The crisis has drawn international outrage, especially as the crisis plays out next to a distinct but related scandal over the Persian Gulf. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi just put a rumor about U.S. renaming the Persian Gulf to bed. He said that he personally hoped that these rumors are just part of a larger disinformation campaign.
During Trump’s reported upcoming Saudi Arabia visit, the President intends to announce this, so… He will announce that the U.S. government will henceforth label the Persian Gulf, the Arabian Gulf or Gulf of Arabia, igniting a furious debate over territorial nomenclature just begun.
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