Google Maps has reclassified the United States as a «sensitive country» following Trump’s remarks about the Gulf, a designation that would apply to countries with strict governments and border disputes.
Google Maps has reclassified the United States as a «sensitive country» following Trump’s remarks about the Gulf, a designation that would apply to countries with strict governments and border disputes.
The new classification for the United States comes after President Donald Trump said his administration would change names on official maps and in federal communications. The changes include renaming the Gulf of Mexico to «Gulf of the Americas» and renaming Mount Denali to Mount McKinley.
Google was ordered to stop labeling the U.S. as a «non-sensitive» country on Monday, according to internal communications seen by CNBC. That’s when the company announced it would change the name of the body of water between the Yucatan Peninsula and Florida to «American Gulf» on Google Maps after the Trump administration updated its «official government sources.»
The decision to include the U.S. on the «sensitive countries» list illustrates the challenges facing tech companies as they navigate the early days of Trump’s second presidency. Since the beginning of the year, Meta, TikTok, Amazon and others have adjusted their products and policies to align with Trump’s political views, policies and executive orders.
Recall that Meta has abandoned fact-checking and is relaxing content moderation rules .
Google’s list of sensitive countries includes China, Russia, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq.
It is unclear whether Google’s new classification extends to the US beyond its «geographic» division.
Some team members in the mapping department were ordered to urgently make changes to the area name and change the US category from «non-sensitive» to «sensitive.» The changes were given a rare «P0» order, meaning the highest priority level, and employees were immediately notified and instructed to stop all their work to work on them.
