Everyone needs to get used to ignoring this bullshit. The Gulf of America thing isn’t important. It doesn’t effect anyone, and there’s far too many posts about it when there are real things to pay attention to. This is purely a distraction. Stop giving it attention.
Mexican President Threatens to Sue Google Over 'Gulf of America' Label on Maps.
Submitted 2 months ago by Cat@ponder.cat to technology@lemmy.world
https://www.commondreams.org/news/google-earth-gulf-of-mexico
Comments
Cethin@lemmy.zip 2 months ago
IzzyJ@lemmy.world 2 months ago
There is one part thats relevant, and thats the government suing AsPo for refusing to comply. Thats a direct attack on the First Amendment
archchan@lemmy.ml 2 months ago
It’s the details that make up the whole picture.
As an isolated situation, the renaming thing may be stupid and not worth giving any credence. Energy can be spent resisting elsewhere in more useful places. However along with the rest of the actions of billionare corpos that kissed the ring, it’s part of the overall trend with devastating consequences. Bullshit details shouldn’t be ignored, but acknowledged as “they’re fucking us from all directions right now and waging war on reality, and we really should stop letting them”.
Katana314@lemmy.world 2 months ago
It’s definitely a distraction tactic, but at the very least looking at Google Maps and Bing Maps makes very clear to people which megacorps are riding the oligarchy; just in case anyone held hope their favorite “techbro revolutionary” might side with them. PS: Mapquest gets it right.
MellowYellow13@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Nah it actually matters more than you think. As an American you might think this is okay, but its not. And Trump getting away with whatever he wants all the time is because of enabling
Cethin@lemmy.zip 2 months ago
For sure. It’s just that this isn’t the part that matter. This is part of the enabling. If you’re paying attention here you don’t see the other thing over there. It’s slight of hand. You only have so much attention, and it’s better spent where it actually has an effect. This will be reversed with the next president.
Reygle@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Reality has to BE.
theluckyone@discuss.online 2 months ago
Out with the oldspeak. In with the newspeak.
brucethemoose@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I can see Google (and Apple) quietly paying this fine and changing it for Mexico (and any other jurisdiction that asks).
This is stupid and cowardly of them, but that aside, the implication is 100% “comply, or the US government will make life difficult for Google.” I can see how they’re stuck between a rock and a hard place.
Arbiter@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Nah, they’re willing collaborators.
ggppjj@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Step two of the plan you outlined was inverted, but the effect is the same: IIRC it only shows up that way for US users.
brucethemoose@lemmy.world 2 months ago
IIRC it only shows up that way for US users.
apparently that was either a lie or incomplete info
Where’d you first hear this?
Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee 2 months ago
This is stupid and cowardly of them,
What else did you expect?
RxBrad@infosec.pub 2 months ago
I legitimately don’t understand why the U.S. isn’t the only locality where it shows up as “Gulf of America”.
Set the en-US string to “Gulf of America”. Leave literally every other region’s text string untouched from what it was 6 months ago.
When the next Democrat U.S. President gets sworn in and immediately Executive Orders it back to “Gulf of Mexico”, change the en-US string back to that.
This is all so stupid and melodramatic.
brucethemoose@lemmy.world 2 months ago
This is all so stupid and melodramatic.
That’s the point!
cotlovan@lemm.ee 2 months ago
Since when is the big tech the arbiter of truth? It might come as a surprise to you, but Google and Apple don’t care about your holy war against Trump.
brucethemoose@lemmy.world 2 months ago
You think Google and Apple should call it the Gulf of America?
TeamAssimilation@infosec.pub 2 months ago
The new name shows only for USA. In Mexico it’s unchanged, or shown with both names.
Our president is dumb and just wants to look like she’s fighting back.
Kalysta@lemm.ee 2 months ago
It’s showing up worldwide. Its why Mexico is threatening to sue.
FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Showing with both names does not make it any better and I’m not sure why you think it does. They’re just kowtowing to a unilateral decision made by one of the multiple countries that border the Gulf of Mexico.
I assume you would not want Taiwan to be called Chinese Taipei on Google Maps.
Draces@lemmy.world 2 months ago
It already does
IDKWhatUsernametoPutHereLolol@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 months ago
Where will the lawsuit be filed in?
Mexican courts? Good luck getting an American company to comply.
US Courts, well… surely no judge would be biased right? glances at the composition of the US Supreme court
International Courts? Lol like they have any power at all.
Reminds me of The Expanse:
“Earth Court? Mars Court? What Inner court gives Belters justice?”
driving_crooner@lemmy.eco.br 2 months ago
Mexican courts? Good luck getting an American company to comply.
Why not? Brazilian courts ordered Twitter to ban some people, Twitter refused, court treated to jail Brazilian Twitter legal representatives, Twitter closed their Brazilian office to shield itself from Brazilian courts, Brazilian courts ordered ISPs to block Twitter because they had no legal representatives on the country, after a couple of weeks without Brazilian access Twitter bow down, rehired their legal representatives and complied with Brazilian court orders.
Don’t see why Mexican courts couldn’t do the same with Google Maps.
IDKWhatUsernametoPutHereLolol@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 months ago
By “comply”, I mean like getting them to revert the map rename. Kicking them out and blocking them isn’t really getting them to “comply”
By contrast, if the US government wanted Google to do something, they could storm their headquarters and get the government tech people to go in the servers and change it.
Nollij@sopuli.xyz 2 months ago
In order to do business in Mexico, they must agree to Mexican laws.
In order to do business in Canada, they must follow Canadian laws.
In order to do business in the US, they must
follow US lawskiss the ring.This isn’t the first time big tech has had to tackle something like this. Usually it’s with disputed territory. In that case, each region gets to see what it demands to see, while presenting something different to the rest of the world.
chiliedogg@lemmy.world 2 months ago
The suit should be by an American cartography company over the proper US Board on Geographic Names’s official process not being followed for the name change.
I’m actually submitting a name change to the board. But since the USGS added a bit on the process saying that resetablisglhing historical names isn’t a reason for a name change, I’m going to recommend it be changed to “The Gulf,” since it meets all criteria for a name change - most importantly that it be a name in common usage by locals. Lots of people refer to it as “The Gulf,” while “Gulf of America” isn’t in common usage.
The most we can do outside of lawsuits is at least try to take the “America” part away.
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I’m going to recommend it be changed to “The Gulf,” since it meets all criteria for a name change - most importantly that it be a name in common usage by locals.
So now when I refer to “The Gulf States”, I’m typically referring to Alabama and Florida and Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
MuadDoc@lemmy.world 2 months ago
the proper US Board on Geographic Names’s official process not being followed for the name change.
This is the theme of this administration. Doing whatever they want with no regard for process. This gulf of “America” nonsense truly feels like the actions of a believed king or emperor. A frivolous decree that doesn’t change anything, doesn’t materially affect anything, just an opportunity to exercise their believed power.
Poem_for_your_sprog@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Let’s name it “the Gulf of America’s pollution”
menemen@lemmy.world 2 months ago
First, what laws are violated? Doubt international law touches this, US law maybe?
Dropper_Post@lemm.ee 2 months ago
Reminds me of: Miss Universe… Miss planet… Miss International…
Embargo@lemm.ee 2 months ago
Less threatening… More doing.
The U.S. dictatorship are just doing and they’re slowly tearing apart OUR planet.
cotlovan@lemm.ee 2 months ago
Bro, are you ok? “US dictayorship”? Trump was elected by the majority of Americans. How is Trump destroying YOUR planet? By changing the name of the gulf? Is this the biggest problem “your” planet has?
Fukin soypeople…
Embargo@lemm.ee 2 months ago
Oh yeah, I forgot. Implying people enjoy soy is an insult. Ouch! My feelings.
I never said Dictayorship. Because that’s terrible spelling of the only word you needed to spell correctly to actually criticise me. I also never linked the mislabeling of the Gulf as destroying the planet. He is though…
He proclaimed that he will “OWN” Gaza through means of literal ethnic cleansing. He’s conspiring with Putin to help finalise his invasion of eastern Ukraine. He’s currently purging the Government of minorities and people he deems unloyal. Elon Musk is infiltrating and tearing up government departments as an unelected right-hand entity. His right-wing army are, by algorithm, shifting the western world easily into fascism. I could go on but I’m done with you.
Bottom line… pay attention.
Also… the fact that you put forward Trump was elected by majority of Americans is a straight out lie. Grow up.
FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 2 months ago
He literally said he would be a dictator if elected.
theguardian.com/…/donald-trump-sean-hannity-dicta…
Maybe pay attention rather than hurl silly insults.
MellowYellow13@lemmy.world 2 months ago
You need actual therapy
SendMePhotos@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Again, this is one of the dumbest fucking wastes of money I’ve ever seen. Waste of labor from the top down. Waste of resources. This is purely a pride move. It’s the gulf of Mexico and always has been. There are American songs about the gulf of Mexico. It’s history. I have said it before and I’ll say it again, I fucking hate this timeline. This shit is wild. This stuff now days is a mockery of our world.
Mog_fanatic@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Look we’re wasting our hard earned tax payer money on crazy fraudulent things like science, education, weather, feeding children, helping the poor, medicine… Dumb things like that. And you’re gonna tell me that changing the name of a body of water to include the greatest God damn country in America is a waste? Next thing you know you’re gonna stand there and tell me that poor people should be able to afford a hospital visit.
echodot@feddit.uk 2 months ago
Republicans are full of it anyway.
Study after study has shown that a nationalized healthcare system increases a nation’s GDP in the long run. After all, people who are unable to work due to sickness or death that were caused by preventable condition, don’t pay taxes.
For everyone else, not having to pay for private health care gives them more disposable income. Which means they spend it on other things which makes businesses more profitable.
Jimmycakes@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Cancel all government contracts with google
wanderingmagus@lemm.ee 2 months ago
And for the love of god do not switch over to another American company, or any company, go FOSS and decentralized
Shardikprime@lemmy.world 2 months ago
redsparks2025@lemmy.world 2 months ago
The word “America” is not reserved for the USA alone and belongs to the entire Americas: North America, Central America, South America. As such if they want to rename the Gulf of Mexico then it should be the Gulf of North America of which both the USA and Mexico are a part of and share borders around that body of water.
Furthermore the word “America” isn’t an English word but the German bastardization of an Italian word. Specifically the word “America” was coined by Martin Waldseemüller a German cartographer who named the Americas after Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci who explored the new continents for Spain and Portugal.
Amerigo Vespucci - History Cartoon ~ Innovative History ~ YouTube.
So if this is the big orange blow-fish’s attempt to dis on Mexico then it’s pretty petty much like everything he does to massage his massive ego.
fogelmensch@lemmy.world 2 months ago
So it’s the gulf of Germany. Got it. Ü
CitizenKong@lemmy.world 2 months ago
VW Golf.
ALoafOfBread@lemmy.ml 2 months ago
Grab em by the vespussi
blanketswithsmallpox@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Salud.
invertedspear@lemm.ee 2 months ago
You wanna know what’s cool about language? It changes over time. So while the origin of a word may mean one thing, it can eventually mean something else as well or even something entirely different. Cool used to just mean temperature, but it eventually also came to refer to the attitude of a person or even how likable they are in common usage. Nimrod was a mythical hunter but thanks to Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd now means a stupid person. Same with “America” referring originally a set of continents. In common usage it has come to mean referencing the United States of America, mostly because people are lazy and is so much easier to say “American” than it is to describe something as “from the United States of America”. You can resist the change all you want, but eventually you sound like some old person that says automobile instead of car since car originally meant an individual portion of a train.
13roses@lemmy.world 2 months ago
The US keeps it to flex on all the other American countries. It’s a display of dominance.
MellowYellow13@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Ive been already boycotting google, amazon, facebook, reddit. Yall need to get on it
phoenixz@lemmy.ca 2 months ago
Restrict Google from doing business.in the country altogether.
Have phones switch to some open non Google platform
Fuck google, microsoft, apple, they’re all evil at this point
leadore@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Whenever I see Gulf of America mentioned, in my head it sounds like “This is America” in the Childish Gambino song.
FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I want to know how many of the people here defending Google’s decision would be okay with Google labeling Taiwan as “Taiwan (Chinese Taipei)” for people in Taiwan and also the rest of the world.
Sam_Bass@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Do it honey. Make em pay for suckin orange ass
merc@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
What’s dumb about this is that in their jurisdiction (Mexico) it is actually the “Gulf of Mexico” in Google Maps, they don’t get the “Gulf of America” name. In the US it’s labelled as “Gulf of America” without mentioning “Gulf of Mexico” which you could argue Google has to do because it (theoretically) follows national laws everywhere it operates.
That’s why Korean users don’t see the Sea of Japan to their east, they see the East Sea. That’s why in some locations the Persian Gulf is referred to as the Arabian Gulf instead. It’s also why inside India the borders you see for Kashmir don’t match the borders you see for Kashmir if you’re in Pakistan. The rest of the world sees a third version of that area with areas marked as disputed.
What’s really annoying is that every other country in the world is exposed to this “Gulf of America” silliness, even countries where people don’t speak English. I can understand (just barely) having “(Gulf of America)” under “Gulf of Mexico” in English-speaking countries because if someone is hearing news from a US source and they refer to the Gulf of America, it might be useful to know what they’re talking about. It’s in the news now, but in 3 years say you’re a high-school kid trying to do a geography report and can’t find the feature on the map, that could be annoying.
But, this parenthesis rule apparently even extends to Germany, where it’s “Golf von Mexiko (Golf von Amerika)”. There’s no reason to include a name that doesn’t exist in your language on your version of the maps app. If I, as an English-maps user look at Germany, I don’t get Munich (Munchen). I don’t get Florence (Firenze), I don’t get India (Bhārat). There’s a long-standing tradition that maps show things in the name that’s local to the map user. Sometimes, over time, a name gets changed to be closer to the way it’s said in the local language, so Peking became Beijing.
Also, google addressed this in a blog post from 2008, almost literally describing this situation:
“How Google determines the names for bodies of water in Google Earth … if a ruler announced that henceforth the Pacific Ocean would be named after her mother, we would not add that placemark unless and until the name came into common usage”
Other than the ruler not being female, the body of water being a different one, and “America” not being Donald Trump’s mother, this is the exact situation.
madcaesar@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Republicans are so good at baiting liberals into useless bullshit arguments, while they plunder stuff that actually matters.
rauls4@lemm.ee 2 months ago
Don’t forget apple
tigolbitties@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
I prefer the name “golfo del gringo loco”
SocialMediaRefugee@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Save your old maps for when this shit has to be reversed in 4 years unless the voters elect another republican troglodyte.
el_twitto@lemmy.world 2 months ago
PLEASE.DO IT
Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee 2 months ago
Google are an American company, and the government of the USA has changed the name. What else do people expect them to do?
Besides, it still say Gulf of Mexico if you’re outside the USA.
bitwolf@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
Google also removed the ability to suggest edits to specifically the Gulf.
Guess they knew ahead of time they’d get an influx of requests to change or back.
Gammelfisch@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Don’t even bother with a pointless lawsuit. Simply stop using Google.
Furbag@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I stopped using everything Google. Fascist collaborators won’t get a dime of my money, won’t get my eyeballs on any of their ads, and won’t get a single kilobyte of data from me to sell for profit.
I’ll keep my gmail account open because all it really does is accumulate spam which probably costs them money.
yggstyle@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Don’t sue- just threaten to block some of googles services in your country and they’ll come around real quick. Hit em where it hurts. Google isn’t hurting for lawyers.
ohellidk@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
Funny thing - I just checked yandex maps (because I’m bored) and it still shows “gulf of mexico” on it.
DozensOfDonner@mander.xyz 2 months ago
Can someone just make a mod or something for g-maps to name all American names to like Spanish ones? Nuevo York, Guashintón Distrito de Columbia, that kinda stuff.
yournamehere@lemm.ee 2 months ago
or we keep american shit inside america. fuck googlemaps, apple and all other shitty US corporations. see, tump will die some day and be forgotten, but people will remember what apple and google did. next time you see someone work for alphabet…spit them in the face. next time an american buys a burger, you spit on it. etc. it is not about actual harm as america is killing itself anyway atm. my bingo card says if trump wins twice, there shall also be two pandemics. maybe protest the egg prices a bit more before using that muri-brain to do sth. against it. americans are just stupid.
Blackmist@feddit.uk 2 months ago
Just call it the Gulf of Fuck The Environment, We’re Getting Rich!
PhAzE@lemmy.ca 2 months ago
So why did google change it in Canada, then?
Draces@lemmy.world 2 months ago
It is labeled Gulf of Mexico in Mexico and the name doesn’t mean they own it. This is almost as ridiculous as calling it Gulf of America in the first place
ChapulinColorado@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Why bother with this? If you want to make a point, pass regulation in Mexico to call E.E.U.U. (US in Mexico) be called Northern Mexico. Then Google is forced to comply on that territory like they claim they do for disputed sections when maps are viewed from that region. It would make for some funny reactions from people visiting Cancun or Puerto Vallarta.
billwashere@lemmy.world 2 months ago
TIL…
The abbreviation E.E.U.U. (often written as EE. UU.) stands for Estados Unidos (United States) in Spanish. This abbreviation follows a grammatical rule in Spanish where doubling the initial letters of each word indicates plurality
So you taught me something today I did not know. Thank you!!
clutchtwopointzero@lemmy.world 2 months ago
That rule existed in Portuguese as well, but they dropped that as indication of plurality is just… wasteful
AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Interestingly (or not) it’s also used in French but only in one case that I’m aware of. Monsieur is abbreviated to M. while messieurs (plural) is MM.
riquisimo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 months ago
I always wondered why it had double letters. Thank you!
lolrightythen@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Just let our mexican and Canadian neighbors take over the USA. We’ve proven to be unworthy of making wise choices.
echodot@feddit.uk 2 months ago
Wait what do they call the European Union then because that’s still EU in Spanish as well.
Resonosity@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 months ago
See, I learned this in Spanish class in my American high school, and I don’t think that linguistic fact stuck with me! Thanks
TeamAssimilation@infosec.pub 2 months ago
If we’re going to play that demagogic game, why not make “United States of America” be shown as “United States of North America” to reclaim the continent name back? Companies will comply if it’s an official request.
WildPalmTree@lemmy.world 2 months ago
They are both states united and in north america…
capuccino@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Es el chapulín colorado
ChapulinColorado@lemmy.world 2 months ago
No contaban con mi astucia!
13roses@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Google is one of many propaganda arms of the US govt. I highly doubt they’d comply with that as it doesn’t fit in with their political agenda.
ChapulinColorado@lemmy.world 2 months ago
At that point they would be like twitter in Brazil when they didn’t comply with fines and were blocked at the country level: www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5y06vzk3yjo
WeirdGoesPro@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 months ago
Currently in Mexico, it displays the name your phone region is set to. It still shows Gulf of America on my phone, even when I am on Mexican WiFi.