Washington (AFP) – Apple has renamed the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America” for US users of its mapping application to comply with an executive order by President Donald Trump. People using the Apple Maps application from the United States will find the body of water is now called the “Gulf of America.” Those accessing the service from abroad, however, will still find it called the “Gulf of Mexico.”
Apple’s decision comes after Google on Monday changed the name to “Gulf of America” for those using its Maps platform inside the United States. Google wrote in a blog post that users outside the United States will continue to see both names. “People using Maps in the U.S. will see ‘Gulf of America,’ and people in Mexico will see ‘Gulf of Mexico.’ Everyone else will see both names,” Google wrote.
Trump signed executive orders changing the names of Denali, a mountain in Alaska, and the Gulf of Mexico soon after his January 20 swearing-in as president. The term “Gulf of America” was soon used by the US Coast Guard in a press release on enforcing Trump’s new crackdown on migrants, as well as Florida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, when discussing a winter storm. The move raised diplomatic concerns in Mexico, and President Claudia Sheinbaum said the government would write to Google and object to the name change.
The Associated Press said Tuesday that its White House reporter was barred from an event with Trump over the top US news agency’s refusal to use “Gulf of America.” Trump’s order to change Denali to Mount McKinley reverses then-president Barack Obama’s 2015 decision to officially recognize Denali, the name used by Alaska Natives for centuries for North America’s highest peak.
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