Google's Obedience to Trump's "Lake America" Order Follows a Depressing Pattern

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/08/google-lake-ontario-america-maps-rename-capitulation/

23•cdrnsf•1h ago

Comments

jayknight•56m ago

Here is a thread about how OpenStreetMaps handled it: https://community.openstreetmap.org/t/lake-ontario-lake-amer...

>So far, the Lake Ontario relation (1206310) as well as at least one other nearby feature has already had its name=* changed once, though it was swiftly reverted and changed to official_name:en-US=* instead, which is the current status quo as of this writing.

tingletech•55m ago

I wish there were a toggle on google maps to show the internationally accepted names for these bodies of water.

tekla•20m ago

There won't be because such a thing does not exist. I do not understand why people think that anyone controls what a body of water is called by individual countries.

Marsymars•11m ago

Yeah, but in the same vein, a) countries are just a collection of people and b) Google's a private company, they can put whatever labels they want on their maps.

If the US admin decided to officially rename every road in the country to "America Street" and every lake in the world to "Lake America", everyone, including Google, would ignore that.

anigbrowl•53m ago

After he's gone we're going to see endless blog posts of the form 'Standing up to those guys inside company X' from execs trying to rehab themselves for rushing to comply with every stupid directive to come out of the White House.

gipp•49m ago

As dumb as the renaming is to begin with, it feels like making this your hill to die on would also be pretty dumb, no? It's fairly inconsequential in the end.

behole•41m ago

Who’s dying on this hill? This “just let this go cause it’s inconsequential” attitude is exactly the attrition that emboldens and underpins the current shift towards facsism. Death of a thousand cuts.

throwthrowuknow•18m ago

If you’re going to use the F word you are required to provide the definition you’re using.

It’s been so overused at this point that it’s just a meaningless sound that can refer to anything someone opposes so I honestly don’t know what you mean.

wat10000•32s ago

If it’s inconsequential then why not ignore it and stick with the real name?

131hn•48m ago

This will still work (it’s just funny)

https://www.reddit.com/r/technicallythetruth/comments/vd5j87...

pvaldes•14m ago

Can't wait for the Canadians trolling back by declaring that they will rename Florida to "Punkeydoodles two" in each official map printed in Canada.

ChrisArchitect•7m ago

How the GNIS Lake Ontario/Lake America name change in the U.S. will appear in Maps

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49495947

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