Mexican President Threatens to Sue Google Over 'Gulf of America' Label on Maps.
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I'd like to say I did that on purpose to show how dumb they'd be renaming it, but it is I who can't remember my East and West
Was going to say, it's West if you go far enough
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It's a US company following US policy as it's a contract holder for the US Government they're compelled to follow US policy. Whether anyone likes it or not, at least for right now, US policy is that the Gulf of Mexico for all intents and purposes is the Gulf of America.
President Sheinbaum can sue Google all she wants, but there's no court that's going to find that a US company complying with US policy is breaking the law.
You could be wrong. While possibly justified on Google's part, Mexico will most likely sue its Mexican affiliate, and if Google wishes to operate in Mexico, it will have to comply with orders from Mexican courts. See twitter and Brazil for similar case.
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Nah. I'll start boycotting google when there are useful alternatives. Amazon, facebook, reddit - no problem.
Google search - fine, I can get by with DDG or Yandex. Gmail - sure, whatever. Maps? Organic Maps (and other openstreetmaps front-ends) works alright for getting your bearings, but it's a far cry from useful for finding businesses, and terrible for navigation. Waze used to be the only viable alternative, but ever since Google bought them, it's hard to justify a full boycott without massively inconveniencing myself.
Same for meta as a whole. Facebook and Instagram, sure, no need. But living without whatsapp is simply impossible in some countries, where it's the de-facto standard for communication, and even used as the only means of contact with government agencies.
Fr, I try, but it’s really not possible to get away from these companies.
Nobody wants signal, nobody wants mastodon, nobody wants or frankly can use openstreetmaps. Alternatives are just not good enough
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President of mexico is just showing themselves to be as big of a baby as trump. Best thing to do is ignore it. Its of such little importance.
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I prefer the name "golfo del gringo loco"
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Hm, I actually don't hate shoveling snow yet but I bet that'd change after a few more times doing it.
Invest in a snowblower
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I don’t. DuckDuckGo and an alternative email provider are wonderful.
DuckDuckGo is just Bing. And Microsoft is not any better in terms of kissing Trump's ass.
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Fr, I try, but it’s really not possible to get away from these companies.
Nobody wants signal, nobody wants mastodon, nobody wants or frankly can use openstreetmaps. Alternatives are just not good enough
Alternatives are just not good enough
And to no fault of their own of course. They just aren't working with the same resources as Google and the others.
I think it's more a question of stepping down our level of comfort at this point. Can we live without a particular service that Google provides, when there are no alternatives with feature parity? Or can we live with the fact that some of the features aren't working as well or missing, and use the alternatives anyway?
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You guys are alright, let’s join forces and make a maple bacon breakfast burrito.
I see you haven't met the MAGA-filled Central Valley and northern Californian populations.
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Proud soyboi checkin in
I like edamame and fried tofu. Does that make me one too?
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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.
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 despite China calling it that.
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I think Google and Apple should call it whatever the official names are, not to take any sort of political stance.
The official name is the Gulf of Mexico. It doesn't become a different name just because Trump declares it. It isn't up to him.
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Inside Mexico they should name it whatever the Mexico calls it. Outside Mexico it should be called however it is called in the respective country.
But again, Google is based in the US, all their decisions are made there.
I'm outside the U.S. and Mexico. This is what I see.
Incidentally, that is also what Mexicans see.
Trump and Google have decided that the whole world has to acknowledge Trump's unilateral declaration.
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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.
in their jurisdiction (Mexico) it is actually the "Gulf of Mexico" in Google Maps, they don't get the "Gulf of America" name.
I'm in Europe and for me it says "Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America)". 🥴
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Hey! What did I ever do to you?
He was into a girl, but you beat her over the head with a club and dragged her back to your cave by her hair before he could make the first move (and beat her over he head with a club and drag her back to his cave by her hair).
You trog-blocked him, dude.
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Oh, sorry. You're right. I was wrong on that point. I didn't realize it showed the sensitive label in parenthesis to others.
I would maintain the rest of the argument though, with the Mexican (and global) point of view being the more prominently displayed, there is no significant harm, and she doesn't stand to gain anything from pursuing a civil case, nor politically.
It's not about harm. It's about kissing Trump's ass on something he doesn't actually get to decide to stay on his good side.
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President of mexico is just showing themselves to be as big of a baby as trump. Best thing to do is ignore it. Its of such little importance.
Right? Honestly there are plenty of geographical features that are named differently between different languages and countries. It really doesn't affect anybody except people in the US.
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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
This is what I see in England. Why should I have to see what Trump thinks the Gulf's name is when it wasn't renamed here?
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It's stupid, but it's not that extreme. Countries have different names for things. For example, Germany calls the Baltic Sea "Ostsee" (lit. east sea) and Lake Constance 'Bodensee" (lit. bottom sea) but those things are only at the bottom and east for Germany.
China calls Taiwan "Chinese Taipei." Should Google Maps show "Taiwan (Chinese Taipei)" on maps? Because I don't see how that would be China's call any more than the name of the Gulf would be Trump's call.
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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.
