this post was submitted on 14 Feb 2025
664 points (99.4% liked)

News

25121 readers
4312 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Summary

Google Maps has blocked reviews for the Gulf of Mexico after backlash over renaming it "Gulf of America" for U.S. users, following a Trump executive order.

Critics accused Google of censorship after it removed negative reviews. Google defended the move, citing policies against off-topic content.

Mexico’s President Sheinbaum opposed the change and may take legal action. Apple Maps also adopted the new name.

The controversy adds to concerns over tech companies aligning with Trump, following Meta’s rollback of fact-checking and diversity initiatives.

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] RabbitBBQ 11 points 3 days ago

Can they make Google list Canada as a state along with Greenland, then we won't have to invade???

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Always remember: Fascism is a feature of capitalism. In desperate times capitalism pushes facism.

Also capitalists are always gone be happy to work with fascists, because it gives them more power and money.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 141 points 4 days ago (9 children)

Just downloaded Organic Maps as a replacement. No ads/tracking plus it's open source and uses OSM. Seems pretty cool so far.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Magic Earth is a great companion for turn-based driving GPS. I just need these apps business search and discovery to be better. For example, it’s really easy to find coffee shops and compare quickly using google maps and it’s basically impossible on open source methods. Wider adoption should help but it feels years away for normal people with short patience to try.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] FlyingSquid 17 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Totally useless for me, unfortunately. I'm in a new town and a new country and the lack of information on it compared to either Google or Apple makes it something I have no reason to use.

I hope it gets better so I can switch. I really don't have a choice right now if I want to get around and just do basic things like find out what shops are open.

[–] [email protected] 48 points 4 days ago (30 children)

Register an OSM account and be the change you want to see in your local map!

load more comments (30 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (6 replies)
[–] [email protected] 64 points 4 days ago

Google also blocks bad reviews about Tesla Gigafactory Berlin.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/qjrBvt1bxnBTmeoU6

[–] [email protected] 49 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Anyone else remembering the good old "do no evil" times from Google, where it actually was and enrichment for humanity?

And here we are today.

Fuck large companies, open source software is the only way forward

[–] Strider 2 points 2 days ago

Always has been.

[–] [email protected] 69 points 4 days ago (1 children)

If anybody actually read the text of the executive order, they would immediately see that, unlike Trump & co. claim, it actually does not rename the Gulf of Mexico:

rename as the ‘‘Gulf of America’’ the U.S. Continental Shelf area bounded on the northeast, north, and northwest by the States of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida and extending to the seaward boundary with Mexico and Cuba in the area formerly named as the Gulf of Mexico

This "renames" as "Gulf of America" the part of Gulf of Mexico in US territorial waters. (Though how you can "rename" something which never had a specific name is unclear to me.) In other words, it is simply incorrect to label the entire gulf as Gulf of America even according to the text of the executive order. Instead, Gulf of America should be a sub-area in the northern part of the Gulf of Mexico.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 days ago

But they know no one will read the fine print. They'll get the news coverage they want out of it.

[–] bitjunkie 33 points 3 days ago

Ah yes censoring your detractors, the go-to move of someone who is confident that they're in the right

[–] kewjo 31 points 4 days ago

I guess it's time to give Google campuses 1 Star reviews?

[–] [email protected] 80 points 4 days ago (32 children)

People need to stop using Google shit services. Like, seriously. There are so many other good services provided by other companies or even just people who make them for fun as a hobby.

[–] [email protected] 38 points 4 days ago (4 children)

Google Maps has been hardest for me to replace. No one else seems to have the business directory aspect as good. Happy to hear suggestions!

load more comments (4 replies)
load more comments (31 replies)
[–] ninjabard 25 points 4 days ago

I gave it a 5 star rating and left this as my review.

"Regardless of what a Racist, Fascist, Fear-mongering, Election rigging POS would have you believe; it's the Gulf of Mexico."

[–] lennybird 5 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (2 children)

More evidence that Corporations are psychopaths in pathological pursuit of profit, just as Joel Bakan wrote.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 19 points 4 days ago

Google mad at the public for trying to shove them off of Trump's cock hissing as they clamp back down even harder.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 4 days ago (1 children)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/02/14/google-maps-political-borders/

This is not new. Google will show citizens of a country whatever that country's leadership wants them to see. Usually it's related to disputed territory from wars, but has also included whiny bullshit like this.

[–] [email protected] 36 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (3 children)

This is new though. The difference is, it's not being limited to citizens of one country. It's being shown globally, regardless of location.

This is from the EU.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] PhoreTwunny 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)

When do we start burning data centers to the ground?

[–] Macallan 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Good luck with that. The Data centers I have been on have more security than many military bases I've been on.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

Just do what they did on that episode of Mr. Robot. Raspberry Pi hack to the HVAC system.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 4 days ago

You can still post photos with comments, fyi

[–] [email protected] 16 points 4 days ago (3 children)

One could still report other stuff around it and mention the gulf...

[–] FuglyDuck 10 points 4 days ago

I suggested changing the name of Mar a Lago to Turd-o-Lardo

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] Paddzr 6 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Oh I didn't know Apple is also a fuckboi.

Surprisingly it didn't make the news like when Google did it, how come? Especially with how big apple is in USA.

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›