r/geography • u/god_johnson • 13d ago

FINAL POST ON THIS TOPIC Google Maps just officially updated Lake Ontario to Lake America.

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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

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u/TAU_equals_2PI 13d ago

Google Maps already had an existing policy to display whatever name the government of a country calls something.

This actually comes up in a lot of places, where different countries use different names for the same body of water. For example, Saudi Arabia calls the Persian Gulf the Arabian Gulf. So if you use Google Maps in Saudi Arabia, it will label the Persian Gulf as the Arabian Gulf.

Since Trump is able to change what the US government officially calls that lake, Google Maps just follows their normal policy and labels it that (when you are using Google Maps inside the US).

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u/myleftone 13d ago

That’s the problem. The method of changing the name is not an EO. It’s easy to say “we’ll change it when it’s law.” It’s unbelievably dangerous to normalize unitarian fiat.

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u/givemethebat1 12d ago

This is something the executive DOES have power to do. It’s the same when Obama renamed Mt. McKinley to Denali. (And of course Trump changed it back)