TL;DR
President Trump's executive order renaming Lake Ontario 'Lake America' was followed by Google Maps because of its policy of matching official government sources, showing how tech platforms pick sides under political pressure.
Last Thursday, Trump signed an executive order renaming Lake Ontario to 'Lake America,' with a big poster board map on site, a red arrow pointing at the new name, and the slogan 'Making the Great Lakes Even Greater.' Lake Ontario is bordered on the north, west, and southwest by the Canadian province of Ontario, with New York State to the south and east.
Google complied; Apple didn't
After the rename, Google announced that its maps follow the U.S. Geographic Names Information System, so U.S. users see 'Lake America,' Canadian users still see 'Lake Ontario,' and everyone else sees both names. Apple Maps still shows 'Lake Ontario.' When the Gulf of Mexico was renamed, Google also followed, and users review-bombed the location so hard that Google shut down reviews.
Some push back, some call it absurd
The legacy navigation service MapQuest tweeted 'We're not changing it' and launched a 'Rename Lake Ontario' web toy. New York's governor and the Senate minority leader called the move juvenile and absurd, saying the president might better spend time on energy and drug prices than renaming a lake.
Curated from high-quality sources, with concise summaries and key takeaways.
