Technology reporter
Getty ImagesGoogle Maps has blocked reviews for the Gulf of Mexico, after criticism of its decision to label it “Gulf of America” for users in the US.
The tech giant updated the name of the location on Wednesday after President Donald Trump ordered it to be changed in official government documents.
Clicking on the label for the Gulf in Google Maps now brings up a note saying “posting is currently turned off”.
Google also appears to have deleted some negative reviews left in the wake of its name change.
The company has defended its decision, saying 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.”
It also highlighted a 2023 blog post about how it tackles “policy-violating content”, such as fake reviews, and the when it disables contributions or removes content to prevent abuse of its tools.
Users on social media claim hundreds of one star reviews have been removed, and have accused Google of “censorship.”
The most recent review left for the location result on Google Maps now appears to be from a month ago.
Critics have since taken to posting negative, one star ratings of the Google Maps app itself on Apple’s App Store, with several describing the app and its labels as “factually inaccurate”.
So-called “review-bombing” has become a popular form of online protest against companies or businesses that appear in Google Search or Maps results.
In December, Google removed derogatory reviews of a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania where Luigi Mangione – the 26-year-old since charged with the murder of United Healthcare boss Brian Thompson – had been arrested.
The tactic has also been deployed to manipulate an app’s ratings on mobile marketplaces.
In 2020, people used it to criticise President Trump’s then-proposal to ban TikTok – reportedly leaving hundreds of critical reviews on his re-election campaign app on Apple’s App Store.
It was also used by GameStop traders to hit back at stock-trading apps such as Robinhood that introduced trading restrictions amid the 2021 market upset.
Forbes reported on Thursday that the company had “tacitly admitted” to removing reviews criticising the Gulf location’s renaming on Maps.
The BBC has asked Google to confirm whether it has deleted them.
Controversial changes
In a blog post on Monday, Google announced that US users would see “Gulf of America” replace Gulf of Mexico on Maps.
It said this followed a “longstanding policy” of reflecting name changes updated in official US government sources.
The name would remain unchanged in Mexico and the rest of the world would see “Gulf of America” added next to its current name in brackets, Google added.
Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum wrote a letter to the company asking them not to rename the Gulf in a letter in late January.
President Sheinbaum reportedly reiterated her concerns on Thursday – suggesting the country could sue Google over the name change.
Meanwhile, Apple has also changed the name for US users of its own Maps app.
Star Trek actor George Takei has encouraged people to “report” the renamed location on Apple Maps in a post to his 1.1m followers on BlueSky.
“Please continue to report,” he wrote above a screenshot of a viral post on X (formerly Twitter) of someone appearing to report the renamed location.
The White House highlighted Apple Maps displaying “Gulf of America” instead of Gulf of Mexico in a X post on Wednesday.
Big tech firms and their chief executives have been accused of trying to “curry favour” with the Trump administration through controversial policy changes.
Meta announced it would ditch US fact-checkers and some global content policies in January, and later joined a slew of firms including Google and Amazon in scaling back diversity recruitment goals.
