Mexico Threatens Legal Action Against Google Over ‘Gulf Of America’ Modification On Maps

Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum listens to a question during her daily press conference at the National Palace in Mexico City on November 6, 2024. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Wednesday that Donald Trump's election victory was "no cause for concern" for her country, despite his threats of tariffs and mass migrant deportations. (Photo by ALFREDO ESTRELLA / AFP) (Photo by ALFREDO ESTRELLA/AFP via Getty Images)
Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum listens to a question during her daily press conference at the National Palace in Mexico City on November 6, 2024. (Photo by ALFREDO ESTRELLA/AFP via Getty Images)

OAN Staff Abril Elfi
3:52 PM – Monday, February 17, 2025

Mexico’s first female president has warned that if Google does not restore the label “Gulf of Mexico,” the former designation of the oceanic basin and marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, to its popular Google Maps service — then the country will file a lawsuit against them.

On Monday, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum asserted that the country will take legal action against Google if it continues to show U.S.-based users the “Gulf of America” designation across the entire body of water. 

Sheinbaum continued, arguing that President Donald Trump’s order only applies to the part of the continental shelf under U.S. control.

“What Google is doing here is changing the name of the continental shelf of Mexico and Cuba, which has nothing to do with Trump’s decree, which applied only to the US continental shelf,” Sheinbaum told reporters. “We do not agree with this, and the Foreign Minister has sent a new letter addressing the issue.”

Sheinbaum called the renaming “incorrect,” noting that Trump’s order “only changed the name within his own continental shelf, which extends 22 nautical miles from the U.S. coast—not the entire Gulf.”

The Mexican president read out a response from Google to a letter sent by Mexico to the company in January, contesting the decision to rename the gulf.

“As we first announced two weeks ago, and consistent with our product policies, we’ve begun rolling out changes to Google Maps. We would like to confirm that people using Maps in Mexico will continue to see ‘Gulf of Mexico,’” the letter from Google reiterated.

“People in the US will see ‘Gulf of America’. Everyone else will see both names,” the letter noted.

Sheinbaum also maintained that Mexico would be sending another letter to Google, stating that “any reference to the ‘Gulf of America’ initiative on your Google Maps platform must be strictly limited to the marine area under U.S. jurisdiction.”

“Any extension beyond that zone exceeds the authority of any national government or private entity. Should that be the case, the Government of Mexico will take the appropriate legal actions as deemed necessary,” it added.

Google changed the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America for Google Maps users in the United States this week, citing “a longstanding practice of applying name changes when they have been updated in official government sources.” 

Sheinbaum concluded that her country will be waiting for a response from the company before proceeding with legal action. 

Stay informed! Receive breaking news blasts directly to your inbox for free. Subscribe here. https://www.oann.com/alerts

Pro-Palestinian Group Posts Map Detailing Location of Jewish Groups in NYC

AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews
"From Palestine to NYC. Globalize the Intifada," was the message on a pro-Palestinian group's Instagram post that details the locations in New York City of Jewish groups with "blood on their hands."The map stated that the Jewish organizations indicated were zones of "direct action."

Within Our Lifetime urged its 121,000 followers to "Know Your Enemy." This not-very-subtle effort to incite violence against Jews caught the attention of the NYPD and drew an outraged response from politicians and ordinary citizens.

"Each of the sites on this map is tied to the ongoing genocide in Gaza and the settler-colonization of Palestine. They reflect a network of dispossession, policing, prisons, surveillance, counterinsurgency, war, destruction, imperialism, and militarization across the globe, with the mass media complex that manufactures consent for genocide acting as tools of the oppressor. These sites are also multi-purpose assets for some of the system's most powerful perpetrators of violence. May this map serve as a call for every struggle to act in their own interest. As we do so, we uplift one another's struggles and free Palestine from the river to the sea," the map reads.

The post has since been deleted. 

Fox News:

Among the locations on the map are NBC News Studios, Fox Corp., where Fox News and the New York Post are located, New York Times, Defense Logistics Agency, Meta, and more.

The group describes itself as a "Palestinian-led community organization" with 121,000 followers on Instagram.

New York City political leaders commented on the map, saying it calls for violence against Jewish individuals.

"Coded calls for violence against Jews are proliferating on social media," Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y. wrote on X.

This isn't the first time an antisemitic group posted a map showing the locations of Jewish organizations. The Times of Israel writes of "The Mapping Project" that emerged last year which also targeted locations of Jewish groups in Massachusetts.

The images recall the “Mapping Project,” an anonymous effort last year that listed the names and locations of Jewish institutions in Boston as supporters of “the colonization of Palestine.” That project was condemned and disavowed by a wide range of organizations, including pro-Palestinian groups. In 2021, a local leader of the Council on American-Islamic Relations warned an audience to beware of “polite Zionists,” including Jewish federations, synagogues, and Hillels, the Jewish campus organization.

The posts displayed black-and-white maps with pins denoting the locations of a number of Jewish and pro-Israel organizations. Some are focused on funding settlement expansion or the growth of Jewish neighborhoods in east Jerusalem, such as the Central Fund of Israel, Friends of Beit El, Friends of Ateret Cohanim, and Friends of Ir David.

“Some of the most egregious organizations that we should be protesting every day are the fake zionist charities funding settlers in Palestine,” read one of the posts. “Make these locations a stop in your protests. picket and leaflet outside of them, make supporters of genocide uncomfortable!”

"Uncomfortable" is a pretty explicit threat when you're directing it at people already disposed to violence against Jews. The pro-Palestinian groups may be able to get away with that crap in Europe, but threatening words and behaviors in the U.S. should land them in jail.