Trump wants to play politics with your Google Maps

BarcelonaUS President Donald Trump began his term with various controversial decisions, among which the name change of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America stands out. From now on, February 9 will be officially commemorated as "Gulf of America Day." In the executive order approved that day, Restoring Names That Honor American Greatness (Restore Names That Honor American Greatness), the president justified the decision to change the golf course's name by stating: It is "a fundamental asset for our nation" and "an indelible part of America," considering that Americans often identify the United States as America. However, the name change has opened up different future scenarios and uncertainties about how it will affect the rest of the world.

Once Google changed the golf course's name on the map, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum sent a letter to the company's CEO, Sundar Pichai, requesting that the company correct the designation of the area to avoid potential confusion and diplomatic tensions. In the absence of a response, Mexico has filed a complaint against Google, although no specific details have been revealed.

While the president of the United States can change the name to conduct official business within the country, this change cannot be imposed on the rest of the world because golf belongs to several countries. "The United States can change geographical names that affect its country, but the Gulf of Mexico is a territory that belongs 40% to Mexico, 40% to the United States, and 20% to Cuba," Rafael Grasa, an expert in geopolitics and professor of international relations at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, ​​​​explains to ARA.

Google was the company that made the change the quickest, following a "consolidated policy of implementing official changes made by governments," according to the company in a statement. However, the tech giant has only changed the name for users located in the United States. In Catalonia, if you use Google or Apple Maps, the name Golf de México remains, although the name Golf de América is added in parentheses. If you search from Mexico, the name Golf de América doesn't appear anywhere.

How do I change the name of a golf course?

Trump can change the name of the Gulf of Mexico internally, thanks to the U.S. Board on Geographic Names (BGN), which approves or rejects name proposals from federal agencies, state and local governments, and the public. But implementing a name change on a global scale would require consensus among different countries and the approval of several entities, since "there is no formal international agreement or protocol governing the naming of maritime zones," the International Hydrographic Organization explains to ARA.

If Trump wanted the name Gulf of America to be recognized everywhere, he would need the approval of Mexico and Cuba, an unlikely scenario. In Mexico's case, President Claudia Sheinbaum jokingly responded to the name change by presenting a world map from 1607, where Mexico and the United States were a single unit, and proposing that the United States be "Mexican America." She added that the US president could use whatever name he wanted, but that, for Mexico and the entire world, it would still be the Gulf of Mexico.

Trump would also need the approval of the International Hydrographic Organization, an intergovernmental entity dedicated to the exploration and mapping of all seas and navigable waters, as well as the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names (UNGEGN).

"Maps have never been innocent"

But although he hasn't managed to impose the name internationally, the president's action is symbolically powerful. "Trump unilaterally wants to demonstrate his power. Saying "Golf of America" can have many interpretations. For Trump, there's only one: for him, all of America is the United States," Jordi Bacaria Colom, senior research associate at CIDOB and expert on the Atlantic space, explains to ARA.

Maps are a way of reflecting power relations, and for Trump, they can be a way to consolidate his political strength and his narrative about the centrality of the United States in the world. "Maps are not simple cartographic tools, but rather selective visions of reality," Grasa adds. "Maps have never been innocent and can be used for various purposes."

Added to this more symbolic dispute are different economic interests. Golf is one of the most important offshore oil production areas in the world. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), golf accounts for 14% of total U.S. crude oil production and 5% of dry natural gas production. For Mexico, golf is a vital location because most of the country's oil, one of the engines of its economy, is extracted there.

Different names depending on the user's location.

Regarding the fact that online mapping applications, such as Google, use different names depending on the user's location, Grasa emphasizes that they are simply "companies that don't want to lose business." After all, Google "is a company that must be in good standing with its customers," Bacaria says in a similar vein. It's no coincidence, in fact, that Google CEO Sundar Pichai was one of the tech executives who attended Trump's inauguration as guests of honor.

Furthermore, the Gulf of Mexico is not unique in that geographical names diverge depending on the location of the search and the application used. For example, the body of water that separates Iran and the other states of the Arabian Peninsula is presented as Persian Gulf on Google Maps and most other applications, but appears as Arabian Gulf on Here WeGo (owned by the Finnish company Nokia).

Regarding the South China Sea—the name seen from Catalonia—if you search from China, it appears as the South Sea; from the Philippines, as the West Philippine Sea; and from Vietnam, as the East Sea.