Google Maps blocks Gulf of America reviews after rename criticism
2025-02-13
Category: news

Google Maps has blocked reviews for the Gulf of Mexico, after criticism of its decision to label it "Gulf of America" for users in the US.The tech giant updated the name of the location on Wednesday after President Donald Trump ordered it to be changed in official government documents.Clicking on the label for the Gulf in Google Maps now brings up a note saying "posting is currently turned off".Google also appears to have deleted some negative reviews left in the wake of its name change.The BBC has asked the company for comment.
"Some types of places are more likely to receive posts, like reviews, that violate Google's policies," the label added to the Gulf result states. "To prevent this, Google has turned off posting."The most recent review left for the location result on Google Maps now appears to be from a month ago.Some users are claiming on social media that negative reviews they posted to object to the change have been removed, and have accused Google of "censorship."So-called "review-bombing" has become a popular form of online protest against companies or businesses that appear in Google Search or Maps results.In December, Google removed derogatory reviews of a McDonald's in Pennsylvania where Luigi Mangione - the 26-year-old since charged with the murder of United Healthcare boss Brian Thompson - had been arrested.The tactic has also been deployed to manipulate an app's ratings on mobile marketplaces. In 2020, people used it to criticise President Trump's then-proposal to ban TikTok - reportedly leaving hundreds of critical reviews on his re-election campaign app on Apple's App Store.It was also used by GameStop traders to hit back at stock-trading apps such as Robinhood that introduced trading restrictions amid the 2021 market upset.Google says it takes action to prevent abuse of its review mechanisms by using automated methods to detect "unusual patterns" of activity - such as a location or business having a sudden spike in one star reviews.It adds action may include temporarily disabling contributions to listings or removing "policy-violating content" to prevent abuse of its tools or fake reviews.
Forbes reported on Thursday that the company had "tacitly admitted" to removing reviews criticising the Gulf location's renaming on Maps.The BBC has asked Google to confirm whether it has deleted them.It comes after Google said in a blog post on Monday that US users would see "Gulf of America" replace Gulf of Mexico on Maps.It said this followed a "longstanding policy" of reflecting name changes updated in official US government sources.The name would remain unchanged in Mexico and the rest of the world would see "Gulf of America" added next to its current name in brackets, Google added.Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum wrote a letter to the company asking them not to rename the Gulf in a letter in late January.Meanwhile, Apple has also changed the name for US users of its own Maps app.The White House highlighted it in a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Wednesday - with an image of Apple Maps displaying "Gulf of America" instead of Gulf of Mexico.Big tech firms and their chief executives have been accused of trying to "curry favour" with the Trump administration through controversial policy changes.Meta announced it would ditch US fact-checkers and some global content policies in January, and later joined a slew of firms including Google and Amazon in scaling back diversity recruitment goals.