Summary
Google Maps has blocked reviews for the Gulf of Mexico after backlash over renaming it “Gulf of America” for U.S. users, following a Trump executive order.
Critics accused Google of censorship after it removed negative reviews. Google defended the move, citing policies against off-topic content.
Mexico’s President Sheinbaum opposed the change and may take legal action. Apple Maps also adopted the new name.
The controversy adds to concerns over tech companies aligning with Trump, following Meta’s rollback of fact-checking and diversity initiatives.
Anyone else remembering the good old “do no evil” times from Google, where it actually was and enrichment for humanity?
And here we are today.
Fuck large companies, open source software is the only way forward
I guess it’s time to give Google campuses 1 Star reviews?
People need to stop using Google shit services. Like, seriously. There are so many other good services provided by other companies or even just people who make them for fun as a hobby.
I’m all for dropping Google if you can, but this is not Google’s fault, it’s Trump’s. Google is simply abiding by its policies of showing names chosen by a given country. If you’re in Mexico, my understanding is that it still shows Gulf of Mexico.
Ah, and as far as dropping Google maps… seriously, I can’t find a valid alternative with real time traffic data as good as Google, free or paid, what do you suggest?
It shows me Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America).
The article says that for the rest of the world it still shows “Gulf of Mexico” … I’m in the USA so I can’t check. Are you saying that you are not in the USA and it shows both names?
Yes, it shows both, which is what makes it so ridiculous. The white nationalist government of one country on the entire planet refers to it by that name, the country that Google is based in, and everyone else in the world is forced to see it? You can’t convince me that’s not politically motivated.
Yeah, that is ridiculous. I don’t really have a lot of respect for Google already, but this erodes what bit of respect I had left for them.
Sure, all these giant corporations have no choice but to tongue Trump’s butthole.
EDIT:
Google is simply abiding by its policies of showing names chosen by a given country.
But this is specifically not the country (as in Congress or the majority of people) choosing it. This was an Executive Order because Trump hates brown people. It’s also not legal.
Find me a replacement for Google Docs and I’m in.
LibreOffice has just announced a wasm port of their suite, to run on and offline…
What’s a wasm?
wasm is short for ‘web assembly’, a binary format for programs to run in web browsers (like a lower-level, faster javascript). I think the goal is to have LibreOffice run in a browser with all the same capabilities as native desktop LibreOffice.
Can they make Google list Canada as a state along with Greenland, then we won’t have to invade???
When do we start burning data centers to the ground?
If anybody actually read the text of the executive order, they would immediately see that, unlike Trump & co. claim, it actually does not rename the Gulf of Mexico:
rename as the ‘‘Gulf of America’’ the U.S. Continental Shelf area bounded on the northeast, north, and northwest by the States of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida and extending to the seaward boundary with Mexico and Cuba in the area formerly named as the Gulf of Mexico
This “renames” as “Gulf of America” the part of Gulf of Mexico in US territorial waters. (Though how you can “rename” something which never had a specific name is unclear to me.) In other words, it is simply incorrect to label the entire gulf as Gulf of America even according to the text of the executive order. Instead, Gulf of America should be a sub-area in the northern part of the Gulf of Mexico.
Just downloaded Organic Maps as a replacement. No ads/tracking plus it’s open source and uses OSM. Seems pretty cool so far.
Magic Earth is a great companion for turn-based driving GPS. I just need these apps business search and discovery to be better. For example, it’s really easy to find coffee shops and compare quickly using google maps and it’s basically impossible on open source methods. Wider adoption should help but it feels years away for normal people with short patience to try.
No. Don’t give up the fight this easily. Google will eventually allow reviews again once this whole thing calms down. And that’s when we strike again.
Totally useless for me, unfortunately. I’m in a new town and a new country and the lack of information on it compared to either Google or Apple makes it something I have no reason to use.
I hope it gets better so I can switch. I really don’t have a choice right now if I want to get around and just do basic things like find out what shops are open.
Register an OSM account and be the change you want to see in your local map!
How can I be the change I want to see when I don’t have the information I need in the first place?
I don’t mean that you need to enter info there that you don’t have. But - you found a new shop? Cool. Enter it in OSM. Or checking it’s correctly in OSM. Or append their opening hours to the data set or…
For some easy edits, there’s e.g. the android(?) app StreetComplete which will show „quests“ on OSM in your area to complete datasets. Like „is this street lit?“ „what surface does this road have?“, „are there board walks?“, „what’s this house number here?“, „what’s name of this street?“ and so on.
You can do such things on an afternoon stroll in your area and it will help you learn your surroundings and discover things.
More evidence that Corporations are psychopaths in pathological pursuit of profit, just as Joel Bakan wrote.
