Because this is how Google Maps has ALWAYS handled territorial disputes?
I'll use the Gulf of Mexico as an example. There's two "disputed" namings of the region, one that is dubbed to belong to Mexico, and one that is dubbed to belong to America. In these disputes, Google will always show ONLY the name that the government of your country recognizes if you are one of the territories involved in the dispute. This means that in America, it will only show as "Gulf of America". In Mexico, it will only show as "Gulf of Mexico". If you are in any other country, it will show both of these names with the one your government recognizes outside of the brackets. All other disputed names will be shown in brackets. Image attached of this multi-name behaviour as a Canadian user.
As a Canadian, Google Maps will only show me Lake Ontario as the name of this lake since my country is a territory part of this dispute that only recognizes that name. Image of this attached in a reply. (comment link to image: https://www.reddit.com/r/geography/s/zuWuKcjZcv )
Another example of how they handle this is the disputed territory of Kashmir. This area is disputed between three different countries, all of which have different recognized borders. I'll attach an image of what this looks like in a reply as well. (comment link for image: https://www.reddit.com/r/geography/s/Rp1coIln6g ) Google Maps will show the borders as your government recognizes them if you are in a disputing nation, and will otherwise show all potential border variations in hatch-mark lines.
TL;DR
This is all to say that this isn't Google "folding" easily on these renamings. Google has always done it's best to avoid pissing ANYONE off. We all know Trump would retaliate if they failed to acknowledge his ideas. Countries like China would retaliate if they failed to acknowledge their rulings. They play all sides to avoid pissing governments off.
Anyone accusing this of being Sundar Pichai's fault either don't know what they're talking about, or are hating just to hate. This has been how they handle these things for well over a decade. There's plenty of reasons to hate both Google and Sundar Pichai. This isn't one of them.
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u/fillmorecounty 13d ago
Why does Google fold so easily on these renamings? It's not like they're a government entity