Google Maps has turned off the ability to leave reviews for the Gulf of America, formerly known as the Gulf of Mexico.
Google is restricting all users from leaving comments and reviews of the Gulf, following its recent name change. Google has gone ahead and reflected the name change ordered by the Trump administration last month. Once in office, President Trump signed an executive order changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.
Currently, the Gulf has a 4.5-star rating on Google Maps. Close to 7,000 reviews have been left with outstanding positive reception. However, users began noticing a notification is now reflected under the review score. “Posting is currently turned off,” Google Maps says. “Some types of places are more likely to receive posts, like reviews, that violate Google’s policies. To prevent this, Google has turned off posting.”
Taking a closer look at the reviews left for the Gulf, it appears as though the most recent one was left a month ago, likely prior to the name change. Thus, if any reviews were left and were violating Google’s policies, it’s likely that they’ve all been taken down. There have been reports of 1-star reviews left on the Gulf since the name change. Many of which remarked on their distaste for the new name.
In Canada and global markets outside of the US, the name change doesn’t really affect users. Google Maps displays the Gulf as the Gulf of America (Gulf of Mexico). However, in Mexico, Google Maps continues to identify it as the Gulf of Mexico. According to Google, the name change was conducted in accordance with the Geographic Names Informational System (GNIS). As the GNIS updated the name, Google took it upon itself to work swiftly and reflect the name change on Google Maps.
Source: Gizmodo
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