Google Maps blocks Gulf of America opinions after rename criticism | EUROtoday

Google Maps has blocked opinions for the Gulf of Mexico, after criticism of its determination to label it “Gulf of America” for customers within the US.

The tech big up to date the identify of the situation on Wednesday after President Donald Trump ordered it to be modified in official authorities paperwork.

Clicking on the label for the Gulf in Google Maps now brings up a word saying “posting is currently turned off”.

Google additionally seems to have deleted some unfavorable opinions left within the wake of its identify change.

The BBC has requested the corporate for remark.

“Some types of places are more likely to receive posts, like reviews, that violate Google’s policies,” the label added to the Gulf end result states.

“To prevent this, Google has turned off posting.”

The most up-to-date assessment left for the situation end result on Google Maps now seems to be from a month in the past.

Some customers are claiming on social media that unfavorable opinions they posted to object to the change have been eliminated, and have accused Google of “censorship.”

So-called “review-bombing” has turn out to be a preferred type of on-line protest towards corporations or companies that seem in Google Search or Maps outcomes.

The tactic has additionally been deployed to control an app’s rankings on cellular marketplaces.

In 2020, folks used it to criticise President Trump’s then-proposal to ban TikTook – reportedly leaving tons of of crucial opinions on his re-election marketing campaign app on Apple’s App Store.

It was additionally utilized by GameStop merchants to hit again at stock-trading apps equivalent to Robinhood that launched buying and selling restrictions amid the 2021 market upset.

Google says it takes motion to stop abuse of its assessment mechanisms through the use of automated strategies to detect “unusual patterns” of exercise – equivalent to a location or enterprise having a sudden spike in a single star opinions.

It provides motion could embody briefly disabling contributions to listings or eradicating “policy-violating content” to stop abuse of its instruments or faux opinions.

Forbes reported on Thursday that the corporate had “tacitly admitted” to eradicating opinions criticising the Gulf location’s renaming on Maps.

The BBC has requested Google to verify whether or not it has deleted them.

It comes after Google mentioned in a weblog publish on Monday that US customers would see “Gulf of America” change Gulf of Mexico on Maps.

It mentioned this adopted a “longstanding policy” of reflecting identify modifications up to date in official US authorities sources.

The identify would stay unchanged in Mexico and the remainder of the world would see “Gulf of America” added subsequent to its present identify in brackets, Google added.

Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum wrote a letter to the corporate asking them to not rename the Gulf in a letter in late January.

Meanwhile, Apple has additionally modified the identify for US customers of its personal Maps app.

The White House highlighted it in a publish on X (previously Twitter) on Wednesday – with a picture of Apple Maps displaying “Gulf of America” as an alternative of Gulf of Mexico.