U.S. President Donald Trump has asked Apple to change the name of Lake Ontario to “Lake America” on its maps app, his administration’s interior chief said Monday, days after signing an executive order over the body of water now in the spotlight amid his escalating trade war with Canada.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum told Fox’s “Mornings with Maria” program that Trump “reached out to Apple directly.” He said he was confident the “Lake America” name could be seen on its platform soon.
Apple did not immediately comment in response. Only the Lake Ontario name appeared on its platform as of Monday afternoon.
Just over the weekend, competitor Google Maps rolled out the new “Lake America” name for U.S. users looking at the body of water that sits between the state of New York and Canada’s Ontario province. The company cited the recent order by Trump, and its already-established practice of using names assigned by the U.S. Geographic Names Information System, also known as GNIS.
“People using Maps in the U.S. will see ‘Lake America,’ those in Canada will continue to see ‘Lake Ontario,’ and those outside of the U.S. and Canada will see both names,” Google said in a brief statement on Saturday, reiterating that such updates “follow our long-standing policy for bodies of water with names that vary from country to country.”
Trump declared the new “Lake America” name last week — marking one of the latest provocations during his trade war with Canada that is now hiking tariffs on both sides of the border. His executive order on Friday directed the Interior Department to update the lake’s name in the U.S. geographic naming service.
The president cannot force Canada to follow along, however. And America’s northern neighbors quickly panned the idea. The leader of the Seneca Nation in upstate New York also said the move violates a more than 225-year-old treaty and shows a “blatant disrespect” for the Indigenous people who gave Lake Ontario its name in the first place.
The president cannot force Canada to follow along, however.
The president also cannot force companies to change the name, either. Not through executive orders. Google did so voluntarily because they love fascism.
Everyone needs to remember how Google was more than willing to assist fascist pedophiles if this ever ends. They will definitely say some bullshit like they do in this article, “our long-standing policy for bodies of water with names that vary from country to country.”
While true that all maps do this, so far, only Google has changed the names to match executive orders. Generally, the names of features on maps are based on what people actually call them, not what a whining piece of shit says they’re called.
Google is garbage for following this clown’s order but you omitted that Apple does it too.
I’m not surprised to be honest, and this isn’t to defend Apple, they’re pieces of shit as well. Google does do it pretty much immediately though, Apple slow walks it. Same result in the end.
The way I see it (and it’s a bit of a guess) is that Apple is simply passing through what the GNIS entry is. To be honest, that’s kinda the right move by mapping companies; or at least it’s a move I can stomach.
Preemptively doing it before it’s in the record, as Google has done, is something I can’t stomach.
I agree, it’s likely that’s where they pull from.
Yeah, Apple fucking bent the knee, too, the assholes.
Look, I’m not going to tell anyone to not stop using google maps, but the US isn’t the first country to insist on their own name for something, and google maps just has a routine policy for dealing with that situation. The country is flagged as “sensitive” and they make it say whatever that country insists on calling it. Virtually everything has multiple names depending on the country you’re in.
Google is American company, one of the biggest and most influental. Americans take big pride in not being ruled by dictators. But this is the same as some dictator renaming things left and right. There is no popular movement behind this AFAIK. So a big company going along even when they could choose not to sends a message.
I think what I don’t like is this implicit personification of corporations. Behaving as though they’re a single being, like they have a nationality, and they decide things as a single, shitty person. But corporations are not people, they are hiveminds. Google is an American company because they incorporated in America and no other reason, any American pride is held by individuals working at the company, not by any entity called “Google” and certainly not by the executives at the helm who can live anywhere they want on a whim.
People say things like “Google did this because it likes fascism”, but that’s our stupid monkey brain assigning intention to an observed cause and effect. In reality, there is a thoughtless system in place for handling this routine situation. The paperwork came across someone’s desk, they changed the string for a geofenced region like they always do, and then they clocked out and stopped thinking about it.
There is no “American pride” built into the system, and any special treatment of a situation you see isn’t “Google making the right decision”, it’s their PR system doing its job.
And their PR/localization system is fundamentally flawed and causes them to bend the knee to fascism. I wonder why they haven’t changed that process?
This isn’t about personification of Google or Apple. It’s about their systems, leadership, and processes that enable bending the knee.
You say you’re not personifying them, while also invoking the imagery of them as a person kneeling. Do you see my point yet?
A corporation is not a person. It doesn’t “bend its knee”. It is a system of cause and effect without any intentionality other than “maximizing profits”. Saying a corporation is bending the knee is like saying an LLM is apologetic for gas lighting you.
Google didn’t change the name of the lake because “it likes fascism”, it happened because it was profitable.
I don’t think there’s any disagreement on this point, I just want people to keep it in mind, because otherwise the next action Google takes isn’t going to make any sense. It might be something broadly perceived as anti-fascist, and all the commenters are going to say, “well, I guess Google had a change of heart. They must want to be on the right side of history.” And my point is: no, it’s always the same machine with the same goal.
What you’re describing is generally referred to as localization. Executive orders are not country wide, and no one outside of the executive branch is required to follow them. Because of that, they are not able to make them nationally recognized, as that would require an act of congress. Even then, it will not ever be internationally recognized since that would require the relevant parties to agree on the change.
Organizations have varied approaches to localization. For example, OSM’s guidelines center around either official or common names for map features. Trump’s names are not official outside of the executive branch, and are not commonly used by anyone. This means the original names have remained the primary name tag, even inside the US.
MapQuest, while I don’t know their guidelines, is also on the side of not changing names of international festures based on an executive order.
This isn’t just a localization thing. The problem, at the root, is that either Google’s localization guidelines are loose enough to force them to bend the knee for fascists, or, more likely, Google wants to continue to glaze up Trump, and is therefore more than happy to bend the knee. Either way, the result is the same.
At least in my version, it’s still lake Ontario. And also gulf of Mexico, btw.
That doesn’t mean that Google isn’t a dipshit company - but wanted to let you know that in that regard they’re consequential fuckers (non US version for me).
Yeah, outside of the US, you’ll see the proper international names. Many maps function this way and localize names, however, usually it’s based on what the locals call a feature, and not what a toddler with a full diaper calls it.
I am in Switzerland and I see Lake America and Gulf of America in Apple Maps. (And only those, no alternative names at all.)
Granted I don‘t really use my iPhone anymore and just turned it on to check, it‘s still stuck on iOS 18.7 if that matters.
Same on the desktop application.
He can impose tarrfis that would effect Google and Apple. Fascism doesn’t need willing corporate involvement, there are a lot of mechanisms they can deploy with unchecked power.
I would think Apple is more susceptible and has likely already folded and is just slower to deploy. They’ve already bent the knee. I think a new ceo just took over but I doubt he’ll have any more of a backbone.
He could, yes, but the point is that he didn’t impose anything on big tech and they’re rushing to do what he says anyway.
Anything to distract from the like 7 other crisis which serve as a distraction from the Epstein files.
I report “Gulf of America” as wrong on Apple Maps at least once per week
I’m assuming they round-file all such reports.
So if the next president changes Lake Ontario to Lake Apple Maps or Lake Fuck Google via executive order, I fully expect Google to comply with the same enthusiasm.
Yup, totally another loyalty test. Dude absolutely loves loyalty. Probably because neither of his parents ever loved him.
It would be so funny if their official response was “let’s just give it a sec…”
It’s changed
CANADA UNVEILS “LAKE TRUMP”
OTTAWA — The Government of Canada today announced the official naming of a municipal sewage lagoon as Lake Trump, recognizing its unusual combination of size, odor, questionable contents, and relentless self-importance.
“Some landmarks practically name themselves,” said a government spokesperson. “Lake TRUMPis impossible to ignore, difficult to stand near for long periods, and contains far more waste than experts initially believed.”
The lagoon will feature a gold-painted sign reading:
LAKE TRUMP The Greatest Sewage Anyone Has Ever Seen.
I hear MapQuest refused.
As of 13:00 on 9/1 the MapQuest desktop site viewed from the US is still showing Lake Ontario.
It also shows Gulf of Mexico on my mobile version so I think it’s reasonably safe to assume they won’t be caving to the senile toddler
Apple should tell donnie the diaperman that they’ll do it, then drag their feet on it forever.
Lol GNIS hasn’t even updated yet. Maybe Trump should worry about getting his own federal name system updated before trying to make others do it.
He doesn’t know what that is, he barely knows Google and Apple.
Tim Apple’s replacement will need to deliver another gold brick to avoid the wrath from this…
