‘Gulf of America?’: Mexico Sues Google Over Modified Map Label
Dubela, Prinona Ghosh: Mexico has filed a lawsuit against Google for renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America” for U.S. users, President Claudia Sheinbaum announced. The legal action follows repeated requests from Mexico to reverse the change, which were ignored. Sheinbaum emphasized that the U.S. has no authority to rename a body of water shared by Mexico, the U.S., and Cuba, although she did not specify where the lawsuit was filed.
The dispute escalated on Thursday after the U.S. House of Representatives, led by Republicans, voted to adopt the new name for federal use. This followed an executive order signed by President Donald Trump on his first day in office, arguing that the U.S. does most of the work in the region and thus deserves naming rights.
Sheinbaum stated, “All we want is for the decree issued by the U.S. government to be complied with.” Earlier this year, she sent an official letter to Google asking for the change to be reconsidered. When the company did not act, Mexico threatened legal action. Google defended the update, explaining that it follows a policy of reflecting official government changes. The map will continue to show “Gulf of Mexico” in Mexico and label it as “Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America)” for international users.
The renaming also sparked a dispute between the White House and the Associated Press, which refused to use the new name and faced limited access to events until a court ruled against the administration in April. Meanwhile, Trump has hinted at renaming the Persian Gulf to “Gulf of Arabia,” which has been strongly criticized by Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, who warned that such a move would provoke national outrage in Iran.
