Mexico has warned it will take legal action against Google if its maps for US-based users continue to display the entire Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America”. President Claudia Sheinbaum stated on Monday that former US President Donald Trump’s directive to rename the body of water only applies to the portion of the continental shelf under US jurisdiction, according to a CNN report.
This marks the second instance in which Sheinbaum has threatened legal proceedings against Google. Last week, she indicated that a civil lawsuit could be considered if the tech company failed to rectify what she described as an “erroneous designation”.
“What Google is doing here is changing the name of the continental shelf of Mexico and Cuba, which has nothing to do with Trump’s decree, which applied only to the US continental shelf,” Sheinbaum told reporters, as reported by CNN. “We do not agree with this, and the Foreign Minister has sent a new letter addressing the issue.”
Sheinbaum criticised the renaming as “incorrect”, emphasising that Trump’s directive “only changed the name within his own continental shelf, which extends 22 nautical miles from the US coast—not the entire Gulf.”
According to CNN, Sheinbaum stated that Mexico would wait for Google’s response before proceeding with any legal measures.
Govt Of Mexico’s Second Letter To Google
Last week, Google updated its maps for US-based users, labelling the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America, citing its “longstanding practice of applying name changes when they have been updated in official government sources” In Mexico, the water body continues to be labelled the Gulf of Mexico, while in all other countries, both names are displayed.
While Google has not issued an official statement on the matter, Sheinbaum, during Monday’s press conference, read aloud what she claimed to be the company’s response to a letter Mexico had sent in January, challenging the name change.
“As we first announced two weeks ago, and consistent with our product policies, we’ve begun rolling out changes in Google Maps. We would like to confirm that people using Maps in Mexico will continue to see ‘Gulf of Mexico,’” the letter read, adding:
“People in the US will see ‘Gulf of America’. Everyone else will see both names.”
Sheinbaum said Mexico is now sending another letter to Google, asserting that “any reference to the ‘Gulf of America’ initiative on your Google Maps platform must be strictly limited to the marine area under U.S. jurisdiction”.
The letter said the Government of Mexico would take the “appropriate legal actions as deemed necessary” as it sought a response from the tech giant.
