Google faced blowback on social media Monday after it announced it would comply with President Donald Trump’s executive order and ― on its Google Maps service ― rename the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America” and revert to referring to Alaska’s Denali as Mount McKinley.
The Trump-demanded changes will come into effect once the U.S. Geographic Names Information System database has been updated, per the online giant.
Google also noted on X, formerly Twitter, its “longstanding practice” that “when official names vary between countries, Maps users see their official local name. Everyone in the rest of the world sees both names.”
Trump supporters predictably lapped up the news.
But critics suggested it was just the latest instance of influential tech companies and their billionaire leaders pandering to Trump, with Google and Alphabet chief executive Sundar Pichai attending the president’s second inauguration last week.
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