Speaking at a rally in South Carolina on Wednesday, the president said he had called Google’s CEO, Sundar Pichai, to ask whether the company could “handle” his proposal.
“I only like two oceans: the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. I’m not going to put either Trump or America on any other ocean but these two. So we seriously looked at the Atlantic Ocean, and I called Google Maps, who were really great with the lake … They’re still rattled from the Gulf. I said: ‘Sundar, I’m thinking of the Atlantic Ocean,’” Trump said.
Trump referenced his previous executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America, as well as his push to rename Lake Ontario as Lake America amid a trade feud between the US and Canada, for which he also signed an executive order requiring US federal agencies to use his new moniker.
According to Trump, Pichai rejected the latest proposal. Trump described the Google CEO’s response by saying, “No, no, no. This time I’m not doing it … Oceans are different, sir. They cover … a lot of countries. Please don’t ask us to do that.”
“So I’ll probably pass. Should I pass it?” Trump said, adding: “I think let’s keep it the Atlantic Ocean.”
They can’t. The USGIS sets names of things for Americans and Trump can basically order them to do whatever. I hate Google and friends but they’re an American company and within the borders of the US, the USGIS decides what things are named.
Fuck them for everything else they’re doing though.
It’s definitely not the first or only fuckery with maps either. India has them display Kashmir as part of India, while other regions show it as disputed. If a nation is important enough to Google, they’ll do whatever you want to keep that ad money rolling in.
There’s absolutely nothing whatsoever forcing these companies to use GNIS names, even for users within the US; they’re doing so purely out of their own discretion.
Outside of federal contract work, you can use whatever names you want in a mapping product.
https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/IF12881
They certainly don’t have to, I guess my point was less “they’re complying with idiots” and more “they didn’t initiate the idiocy”. I see how this is unclear in my comment, but I’m not sure how to make it more clear. MapQuest is an example of a mapping company choosing not to follow government direction.
I guess as much as I severely dislike our technocrats and how they enable Donnie, I want to ensure we primarily blame Donnie for Donnie’s idiocy.
With ya all the way on that front 🤙
They absolutely can but at the same time, whose authority/responsibility is it to make these changes if not GNIS? Google’s? If Ukraine were to give up the Donbas to Russia in some sort of settlement, should Google respect that decision as well? When China and Taiwan argue about territory, whose side should they take?
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