Tech companies aren’t moving fast enough for America’s most sensitive politicians.
Summary
Rep. Dan Crenshaw criticized Apple Maps for not renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, as mandated by Trump’s recent executive order titled “Restoring Names that Honor American Greatness.”
Crenshaw’s complaint reflects broader conservative frustration, as tech platforms and the global community continue to use the original name.
Critics compare the move to past nationalist gestures like renaming french fries "freedom fries," accusing conservatives of embracing identity politics and culture wars despite their political dominance.
The name change is unlikely to gain international traction.
Ahem. Umm, conservatives are angry that others are not calling something what THEY want it to be called?
Hmm. So.... I just feel like... perhaps, there's a similarity here. Some people... want to be referred to a specific way... but usually conservatives have a problem with that.
Anyone else remember "freedom fries"? That's what we were supposed to call french fries when conservatives were upset that the French were not supporting the US invasion of Iraq.
Real question here: It is titled “Restoring Names that Honor American Greatness.” - Has the Gulf of Mexico ever been named "Gulf of America" in any reasonable historical context, or is this just the usual made-up "fact" from Donald the Jester?
Wait, that really happened? I thought the gulf of Mexico renamed shit was just memeing. Google maps still shows the proper name instead of the tantrum name.
Executive orders have no control over non-government entities. They are just official instructions given to lower executive office departments on how to operate.
The earliest known use of the name America dates to April 25, 1507, when it was applied to what is now known as South America. It is generally accepted that the name derives from Amerigo Vespucci, the Italian explorer, who explored the new continents in the following years on behalf of Spain and Portugal, with the name given by German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller.
As someone who worked in mapping, many people don't realize how much this kind of BS actually comes up.
The map you see in Google / Apple maps isn't the map the whole world sees. What you see is what's culturally / legally appropriate for viewers in your region.
For example, in parts of India it's legally required that Jammu and Kashmir be displayed as being part of India on their maps. On Pakistan's maps it's legally required to be weirdly ambiguous, with a strange open border that doesn't properly close. The rest of the world gets dotted lines indicating it's complicated.
For most of the world the body of water between Korea, Japan and Vladivostok is labeled as "The Sea of Japan", but users in Korea will see "The East Sea". Is the body of water around Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, UAE, etc. the Persian Gulf or the Arabian Gulf? Depends on where you are when you ask that question.
This even has a strange effect when all the countries involved agree that a certain geographic feature is the border, but that geographic feature is a river. Some rivers, especially ones like the Amazon river keep shifting. Sediment piles up, erosion happens, and the river shifts. The river is still the border, but now someone has to go in and adjust the political border to match the river's new position.
So, if Trump does do something official to rename the Gulf of Mexico, the online mapping companies (and any offline ones that are left) will probably follow the rule and rename it... for their American users. The rest of the world will still see it as the Gulf of Mexico. It will just be yet another one of those funny exceptions the companies have to keep track of while displaying maps for a certain subset of users.
Google Maps still calls it Gulf of Mexico also. And they still call that mountain "Denali". It isn't just Apple that didn't drop everything to push out a software update to hundreds of million of devices in less than 24 hours for nonsense.
Surprised he hasn't tried to slap his name on something by EO yet, like a blue state.
"New York is such a weak name-- you know it, I know it-- I had an uncle that went to New York folks, great man, smart man. He told me once with tears in his eyes, New York could be great, but it's so sad, could be great though. So it needs a biglier name, powerful name, not weak, powerful. From today I've decided it's now called, Trump Trork."
Sorry if this has been asked elsewhere, but who even has the legal right to rename the gulf? It doesn't belong to USA, right? So we can't just rename it, right? If we did, everybody else in the world would keep calling it The Gulf of Mexico, right?
Only about a third of the Gulf of Mexico is US territory, so how can the US president unilaterally rename it? Seems Mexico has the larger claim to naming rights.
The Gulf of Mexico didn't choose its supposed new name. This is not deadnaming. Unless there is a positive definition of the word that I'm not aware of, this attempt to rename is the opposite of the meaning. The use of the deadnaming in this context trivializes and distorts what it means. Shame on Gizmodo.