This image from Google Maps viewed from a browser in New York on Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025, shows the Gulf of Mexico renamed the “Gulf of America.” (Google via AP)
Google has tacitly admitted to removing negative reviews after changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America on Google Maps. The company has also turned off the ability to suggest edits or report inaccuracies for the Gulf of America.
“We regularly put protections on places during times when we anticipate an uptick of contributions that are off-topic or unrelated to someone’s direct experience with the place,” a Google spokesperson told me in an email, directing me to a 2023 blog post about the company’s rules for “policy-violating content."
“We’re invested in making sure information is accurate and unhelpful content is removed,” the blog post says.
The decision to curtail content contributions on the Gulf of America comes as irked users pushed back, mobilizing to review-bomb the renamed location on Google Maps as an act of political dissent.
ForbesAngry Google Maps Users Report Gulf Of America As Mislabeled
It wasn’t long after users on social media complained about being unable to report the Gulf of America as mislabeled or suggest edits. The users also mentioned multiple deleted reviews.
Gulf of America Content Moderation On Google Maps Is Standard Procedure
Google seems to simply be enforcing its already existing content moderation rules for Google Maps.
When deciding how to depict location names on Maps, Google sources data from authoritative standards bodies like the United Nations, ISO and the FIPS.
In a post on X, the company explained that it draws data from the Geographic Names Information System when naming places in the U.S.
The renaming of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America is a result of a change in the GNIS database, which itself was updated by executive order from President Donald Trump.
Once GNIS set the new standard as the Gulf of America, all mentions of the location as the Gulf of Mexico now technically fall under what Google would consider “fake content.”
The deluge of mislabeling reports and reviews calling the location by its former name triggered the app’s “real-time abuse" protocol.
“When we detect suspicious activity, we act quickly and may implement protections to prevent further abuse,” Google Maps product manager Christina Wichiencharoen wrote in the blog post from 2023. “This can include everything from taking down policy-violating content to temporarily disabling new contributions.”
Google notes that some of these safeguards are temporary, while others remain in place longer, depending on the severity of the situation.
Beyond temporary protections, “there are also longer-term protections for places where we have found user contributions to be consistently unhelpful, harmful or off-topic,” Wichiencharoen wrote.
We’re yet to find out where the Gulf of America falls on that spectrum.
Gulf of America Now The Default On Google Maps, Apple Maps and Bing
Although the first to implement the change, Google Maps is not the only one.
Apple Maps and Bing have subsequently also followed suit, with both now displaying the Gulf of Mexico as Gulf of America. So before you rush to boycott Google Maps, just know that the alternatives aren’t much different.