On Tuesday, Jan. 29, Google said it would rename the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America” on its maps, following a directive from President Donald Trump. Also, on Tuesday, the company’s maps division reclassified the U.S. as a “sensitive” country, according to CNBC.
Google uses the sensitive country designation for those with strict governments or border disputes. They include Russia, China, Israel, Saudi Arabia and Iraq. In making this change, Google also added Mexico to its list.
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At first, users may still see the Gulf of Mexico and Denali names for the locations President Trump renamed to the Gulf of America and Mount McKinley, respectively. Google said it will make the change after the U.S. updates what Google described as “official government sources.”
It’s just the latest sign of a tech giant changing its approach to the U.S. under President Trump.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai attended Trump’s inauguration, sitting in the Capitol Rotunda alongside the heads of other large tech firms. The company also donated $1 million to the Trump inauguration fund.
Meanwhile, some of Google’s peers have made larger changes to align more closely with the president’s views.
Earlier this month, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the company’s platforms would drop fact-checking and loosen their enforcement of policies governing what they had previously described as hateful conduct.
Both Meta and Amazon have pulled back on their diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, initiatives. President Trump has signed executive orders restricting federal agencies’ use of these initiatives.
TikTok also thanked President Trump in a notification to U.S. users after the then-president-elect said he would hold off on enforcing a ban on the Chinese-owned app in the U.S.
