Mexico sues Google for renaming Gulf of Mexico as ‘Gulf of America’

Fed up with Google’s insistence on labelling the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America on Google Maps, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum says her country has made good on threats to sue the tech giant.

“The lawsuit has already been filed,” Sheinbaum said at her morning news conference on Friday, without saying where and when it was submitted, reports The Guardian.

The change in the name of the body of water was an act made by U.S. President Donald Trump by executive order earlier this year.

At a February press conference, shortly after the executive order was signed and Google changed the name on its maps, Sheinbaum argued that Trump’s order to rename the gulf only applies to part of the continental shelf under U.S. control.

“What Google is doing here is changing the name of the continental shelf of Mexico and Cuba, which has nothing to do with Trump’s decree, which applied only to the U.S. continental shelf,” Sheinbaum said at the time, adding Mexico had written a letter to Google and was awaiting a response on the matter.

“We will wait for Google’s response and if not, we will proceed to court,” she warned, sharing a previous letter from Cris Turner, Google’s vice president of government affairs and public policy, stating that Google will not change the policy it outlined after Trump declared the body of water the Gulf of America.

As it stands, the gulf appears in Google Maps as Gulf of America within the United States, as Gulf of Mexico within Mexico and Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America) elsewhere, including Canada. Turner in his letter said the company was using Gulf of America to follow “longstanding maps policies impartially and consistently across all regions.”

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The body of water has shared borders between the United States and Mexico. Trump’s order only carries authority within the U.S.

Mexico, as well as other countries and international bodies, do not have to recognize the name change.

Sheinbaum has repeatedly decried the move, arguing the “Gulf of Mexico” name has long been recognized internationally. On Feb. 13, she said Google had not resolved Mexico’s earlier complaints.

“If necessary, we will file a civil suit,” she said. “Even President Trump isn’t proposing that the entire Gulf of Mexico be called the ‘Gulf of America,’ but only their continental shelf. So Google is wrong.”

— With files from Global News’ Katie Scott and The Associated Press