Following an order from President Donald Trump to modify the location's name in official government documents, the internet giant changed the name on Wednesday. Clicking on the Gulf label on Google Maps now displays a message saying "Posting is currently turned off".
Google also appears to have removed some unfavorable reviews after its name change.
The firm has defended its move, claiming in a statement that it "regularly puts protections on places during times when we anticipate an uptick of contributions that are off-topic or unrelated to someone's direct experience with the place."According to Google Maps, the location result's most recent review was posted a month ago.
So-called "review-bombing" has emerged as a popular method of online protest against corporations or businesses that show in Google Search or Maps results. In December, Google erased negative ratings from a McDonald's in Pennsylvania where Luigi Mangione, the 26-year-old man charged with the murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, had been detained. The method has also been used to alter app ratings on mobile markets.
People utilized it in 2020 to criticize President Trump's intention to ban TikTok, reportedly leaving hundreds of negative ratings on his re-election campaign app on Apple's App Store. It follows Google's announcement in a blog post on Monday that the Gulf of Mexico would be replaced on maps with the "Gulf of America" for US users. It stated that this was consistent with a "longstanding policy" of recording name changes as they were changed in official US government sources.
