Mexico is suing tech giant Google for labeling the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America for U.S. users, after President Trump ordered the U.S. government to change the body of water’s name, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Friday.
Sheinbaum announced the lawsuit in her daily press briefing, but did not provide details on the suit.
Mexico’s foreign relations ministry had previously sent letters to Google asking it not to label Mexican territorial waters as the Gulf of America. Mexico argues the new label should only apply to the part of the Gulf over the United States’ continental shelf.
In February, Sheinbaum shared a letter from Cris Turner, Google’s vice president of government affairs and public policy, stating that Google will not change the policy it outlined after Mr. Trump declared the body of water the Gulf of America.
As it stands, the gulf appears in Google Maps as Gulf of America within the United States, as Gulf of Mexico within Mexico and Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America) elsewhere. Turner in his letter said the company was using Gulf of America to follow “longstanding maps policies impartially and consistently across all regions.”
Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CBS News.
Mr. Trump signed an executive order to change the body of water’s name to the Gulf of America — and change the Alaskan mountain Denali’s name back to Mount McKinley — shortly after taking office. The Interior Department later formally renamed the gulf.
The executive order only carries authority within the U.S., and Mexico and other countries do not need to recognize the name change. The U.S. and Mexico both have coastlines along the Gulf, and a State Department report from the 1970s said the maritime boundary between the two countries begins at the center of the mouth of the Rio Grande and runs in a fixed line.
Still, Mr. Trump and his allies have pushed for wider adoption of the Gulf of America name.
The House on Thursday passed a bill that sought to codify the name change and direct federal agencies to update their maps accordingly, with almost all Republicans voting in favor. Meanwhile, the Trump administration restricted Associated Press reporters’ access to some White House spaces after the outlet chose not to follow the name change, though a federal judge ordered the government to restore access.
