Washington, January 29, 2025 (TDI): Google seems smart in the current artificial intelligence era. Meanwhile, Google has named the United States on Google Maps a ‘’sensitive country,’’ a designation it recieved after the initiation of deportation and border dispute activities.
In this sense, United States President Donald Trump said, “His administration would make name changes on official maps and federal communications.” In this scenario, those changes would include renaming “Gulf of Mexico” to “Gulf of America” and renaming Mount Denali as Mount McKinley.
Google has taken a hard stance on designating the United States as a “sensitive country.” Following the Trump administration’s update to official government sources, Google announced plans to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America” on Google Maps, which will only be visible to U.S. users.
On the other hand, this label would harm tech companies that are totally inclined to the tech economy of the United States during Trump’s second non-consecutive presidency. So far, billion-dollar tech companies, including Amazon, TikTok, and Meta, have already adjusted their vision and mission according to political views, policies, and executive orders.
Google’s list of sensitive countries includes China, Russia, Israel, Saudi Arabia and Iraq, among others. According to internal correspondence reviewed by CNBC, the label is also used for countries with “unique geometry or unique labeling,” according to internal correspondence reviewed by CNBC.
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In this regard, Google has already labeled ‘’sensitive country’’ on several authoritarian countries across the world, including China, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and others. This development is alarming for the new US administration.
The U.S. and Mexico are new additions.
The “sensitive” classification is a technical configuration that signifies some labels within a given country are different from other countries, a company spokesperson told CNBC.
At the same time, the US and Mexico are a new addition to Google’s sensitive list. Those who are working at Google were ordered to urgently make changes to the location name and recategorize the US from non-sensitive to sensitive,’’
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Google further stated that in this move, the Gulf of America title should be treated the same as the Persian Gulf, which is displayed on Google Maps in Arab countries as the Arabian Gulf.
