Mexico is asking Google not to rename the Gulf of Mexico for US users despite Trump’s executive order.
Mexico sued tech company Google for adopting President Donald Trump’s labelling of the Gulf of Mexico as the “American Gulf.”
Mexican President Claudia Sinbaum announced the lawsuit on Friday but did not provide details. Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs has previously written to the tech giant, asking them not to use the “American Gulf” to refer to the water within its territory.
The Gulf of Mexico is currently appearing as the “American Gulf” of Google Maps for users in the US. It appears to be the “Gulf of Mexico” for non-US users.
On January 20th, when he first took office, Trump signed an executive order renaming water in all federal references. A few weeks later, on February 9th, he flew through the bay and declared it “American Gulf Day” in another declaration.
Critics say the move is in line with Trump’s expansionist goals, including threatening to assume control of the Panama Canal and Greenland, and pushing Canada to become the “51st state.”
The waters in question are ocean basins enveloped between the southern United States and Mexico, and have been named “Gulf of Mexico” for over 400 years.
Mexico argues that if the US adopts the term “Gulf of America,” the new name should only apply to parts of the bay on the continental shelf. That boundary generally coincides with the US Mexican maritime border.
In February, Cris Turner, Google’s vice president of government affairs and public policy, said that it would not change the naming treaty to Mexico, according to a letter shared by Sheinbaum at the time.
Turner said the company “maps its policy in a fair and consistent manner across all regions.”
Google, part of the Alphabet Conglomerate, says it will update its region names according to the US geographic name system.
Since taking office, Trump has also moved to change federal documents calling North America’s highest peak, Denali, traditional Alaska’s name. He returned the name to Mount McKinley, a more recent name that Gold Miner was adopted to honor the murdered president.
But the debate over the “Gulf of Mexico” has galvanized Trump’s Republican politicians.
On Thursday, the U.S. House of Representatives voted along the 211-206 party line, officially releasing “American Gulf” as the formal name, with only one Republican joining the opposition. The bill is likely to face steeper odds in the Senate.
Mexico and Google standoffs are not the only contest that has relate to Trump’s Gulf Coast name names.
A month after the White House took office, the Associated Press attempted to block reports from the oval office.
A federal judge ordered the White House last month to restore full access to the agency to cover the president’s events.