Google Maps blocks Gulf of America evaluations after rename criticism

Google Maps has blocked evaluations for the Gulf of Mexico, after criticism of its choice to label it “Gulf of America” for customers within the US.

The tech large updated the name of the location on Wednesday after President Donald Trump ordered it to be modified in official authorities paperwork.

Clicking on the label for the Gulf in Google Maps now brings up a notice saying “posting is at the moment turned off”.

Google additionally seems to have deleted some destructive evaluations left within the wake of its title change.

The corporate has defended its choice, saying it “recurrently places protections on locations throughout instances once we anticipate an uptick of contributions which might be off-topic or unrelated to somebody’s direct expertise with the place.”

It additionally highlighted a 2023 blog post about the way it tackles “policy-violating content material”, corresponding to faux evaluations, and the when it disables contributions or removes content material to forestall abuse of its instruments.

Customers on social media claim hundreds of one star reviews have been eliminated, and have accused Google of “censorship.”

The latest assessment left for the location result on Google Maps now seems to be from a month in the past.

Critics have since taken to posting destructive, one star rankings of the Google Maps app itself on Apple’s App Retailer, with a number of describing the app and its labels as “factually inaccurate”.

So-called “review-bombing” has turn out to be a preferred type of on-line protest in opposition to corporations or companies that seem in Google Search or Maps outcomes.

In December, Google removed derogatory reviews of a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania the place Luigi Mangione – the 26-year-old since charged with the homicide of United Healthcare boss Brian Thompson – had been arrested.

The tactic has additionally been deployed to govern an app’s rankings on cellular marketplaces.

In 2020, folks used it to criticise President Trump’s then-proposal to ban TikTok – reportedly leaving hundreds of critical reviews on his re-election marketing campaign app on Apple’s App Retailer.

It was additionally utilized by GameStop merchants to hit again at stock-trading apps corresponding to Robinhood that launched buying and selling restrictions amid the 2021 market upset.

Forbes reported on Thursday that the corporate had “tacitly admitted” to eradicating evaluations criticising the Gulf location’s renaming on Maps.

The PJDM has requested Google to substantiate whether or not it has deleted them.

In a blog post on Monday, Google introduced that US customers would see “Gulf of America” exchange Gulf of Mexico on Maps.

It mentioned this adopted a “longstanding coverage” of reflecting title modifications up to date in official US authorities sources.

The title would stay unchanged in Mexico and the remainder of the world would see “Gulf of America” added subsequent to its present title in brackets, Google added.

Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum wrote a letter to the company asking them to not rename the Gulf in a letter in late January.

President Sheinbaum reportedly reiterated her issues on Thursday – suggesting the nation may sue Google over the title change.

In the meantime, Apple has additionally modified the title for US customers of its personal Maps app.

Star Trek actor George Takei has inspired folks to “report” the renamed location on Apple Maps in a submit to his 1.1m followers on BlueSky.

“Please proceed to report,” he wrote above a screenshot of a viral submit on X (previously Twitter) of somebody showing to report the renamed location.

The White Home highlighted Apple Maps displaying “Gulf of America” as a substitute of Gulf of Mexico in a X post on Wednesday.

Huge tech corporations and their chief executives have been accused of attempting to “curry favour” with the Trump administration by controversial coverage modifications.

Meta introduced it might ditch US fact-checkers and a few world content material insurance policies in January, and later joined a slew of corporations together with Google and Amazon in scaling back diversity recruitment goals.