Why is Google making the change? To curry favor with the current admin (which they are afraid of). They could simply ignore it. But if they don’t, other nation states must resort to legal action, as it is one of the few remaining paths of recourse available.
The problem is the president, not that Google is afraid of him. Private corporations should be afraid of democratically-elected regulators, especially the regulator-in-chief.
Well -- Trump's executive order changed the official name of the body of water from the American perspective. Sure, I thought this was dumb.
But -- I said "futile" specifically about legal action against Google. They changed the name of a body of water for users in a country to the new official name of that body of water in said country.
I just don't think there's anything there (on Google's side). Perhaps I'm wrong though, as I'm not an international law expert.
I think it's a different situation in Crimea, as that's very much an active territorial dispute. Google went with the names that Ukraine changed, as it's internationally recognized as a part of the Ukraine. Worth noting I don't even think Google Maps is maintained in Russia anymore.
An example of consistency I think would be the East Sea/Sea of Japan:
"Google Maps labels it the Sea of Japan for Japanese users, the East Sea for South Korean viewers and uses both names — stylized as Sea of Japan (East Sea) — for everyone else."
> But -- I said "futile" specifically about legal action against Google. They changed the name of a body of water for users in a country to the new official name of that body of water in said country.
I live nowhere near the US. I access the internet without a VPN. My government has nothing to do with this nonsense. I open Google and see "Gulf of America" between parenthesis.
