Mexico drags Google to court over renaming of Gulf of Mexico in Maps

On Friday, President Claudia Sheinbaum revealed that Mexico is filing a lawsuit against the global search engine powerhouse Google regarding the contentious change of the “Gulf of Mexico” to “Gulf of America” on Google Maps for users in the United States.

Dispute arose when Donald Trump enacted an executive order instructing federal agencies to rename the body of water as the Gulf of America soon after assuming office as US President. Google was one of the initial companies to promptly adhere to the directive by revising its popular Maps service to incorporate the updates.

According to the update, Google Maps users in the US see the Gulf of Mexico referred to as the Gulf of America. For users located in Mexico, it remains – still – the Gulf of Mexico. And for anyone outside the US and Mexico – such as, for example, a person in India – Google has identified it as the Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America).

The Gulf coastline is shared by the US and Mexico. The maritime boundary is said to be established at the center of the Rio Grande and is a permanent line. Highlighting that the Gulf of Mexico is of “international significance,” President Sheinbaum stated that the legal measures seek to guarantee the preservation of territorial and geographic sovereignty.

Her administration had earlier cautioned Google that it would take the company to court if it didn’t overturn the decision. Every request was rejected, with Google’s Vice President of Government Affairs and Public Policy, Cris Turner, asserting the company was merely adhering to “longstanding maps policies fairly and uniformly.”

The Mexican government claims that Google’s adherence to a US-specific executive order shouldn’t apply to international waters or affect mapping in other countries.  Meanwhile, the US House of Representatives has passed a bill (with a firm majority) to formally adopt the “Gulf of America” name, reinforcing the executive order and instructing all federal agencies to update their maps accordingly.

Like Google, Apple has also made changes to its competing Maps platform, though it is not known if Mexico plans to sue the iPhone-maker as well at this point in time. Some mapping services such as MapQuest have resisted making the suggested changes so far.

Specifics of the legal complaint filed by Mexico have not been revealed at the time of writing.