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In the vernacular of @pluralistic: Google Maps changing ‘Gulf of Mexico’ to ‘Gulf of America’ is geopolitical twiddling.
https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/19/twiddler/
> If you’re an analog grocer changing the prices of eggs, you have to send minimum-wage teenagers racing around the store with pricing guns to sticker over the old prices.
>
> If you’re Amazonfresh, you just twiddle a dial on a digital control panel and all the prices are changed instantaneously.
Big Tech is now twiddling with international borders.
It's been a lot of years since any grocery I visited had price tags on the merchandise.
So Google is just another arm of the #POTUS ... interesting. Makes one wonder who else pulls the strings at Google ... 
Now, if different countries authorize their own versions of maps, which one will be considered "correct"?
#cartography just got way more complicated.
@Perspective @erlend @pluralistic Cartography has been complicated long before this. Google has always served up different names (and even drawn different boarders) depending on the user's jurisdiction for as long as they have had international offices. This does not make them an arm of #POTUS they just follow regional laws. They do the same for far worse regimes.
Wow, crazy. Thanks for providing some context - we don't usually hear about what goes on in the background.
@Perspective @erlend @pluralistic Just for the record, I personally think Google has become evil™ for many reasons, this just isn't one of them. Neither Google nor anybody else is in a position to use their mapping platform to arbitrate globally "correct" answers to disputed territory. Following local laws is pretty much the only robust solution, and that means drawing lots of different maps. Note that every other major mapping platform out there, including open-source ones, face similar issues.
@alerque very good point Caleb, the nuance is much appreciated!