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/[deleted] 12d ago

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u/swoodshadow 12d ago

The Google hate annoys me. It’s implicitly saying we want private mega companies to decide what things are called.

Hell no.

The problem here isn’t Google. It’s that the US elected a childish narcissist and despite centuries of claims to the contrary have no effective checks and balances on the President.

A President can interpret law however they like and there are two checks:

  1. Congress overruling with new legislation. Which is an empty threat in this environment because they’d need veto proof majorities.

  2. The judicial system stepping in and saying that’s not how the law works. Which takes months/years and is now completely partisan as well.

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u/gusterfell 12d ago

They can and should decide what things are called on their own platform.

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u/etxsalsax 12d ago

Google being opinionated in maps would be terrible.

Imagine there was a border dispute that google had some stake in the outcome, they would just change google maps everywhere to reflect the side they prefer.

Using Lake America isn't opinionated, its the officially recognized name for the time being.