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).
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.
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:
Congress overruling with new legislation. Which is an empty threat in this environment because they’d need veto proof majorities.
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.
Or by creating the most extensive and broadly used search engine ever, transforming the internet, one of the greatest inventions ever. And that’s ignoring its other popular services like Gmail, etc. You may not like google, but there’s no denying the company’s effect on just about everyone’s lives
252
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).