Amid backlash for updating its maps to show “Gulf of America” in place of “Gulf of Mexico,” Google Maps has started to both block new reviews of the location, as well as deleting recent negative reviews.
Google Maps recently updated its data to reflect recent changes by the US government where the “Gulf of Mexico” is now referred to as the “Gulf of America.” Google explained that this change was in line with the company’s policy on how to show officially-recognized names of places and landmarks to match the country it’s being shown in. As such, the “Gulf of America” name only shows to Maps users in the United States, where it is shown as “Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America)” elsewhere.
This has been met with backlash, with negative reviews of the “Gulf of America” surfacing on Google Maps over the past few days.
Google has since disabled the ability to leave new reviews of the “Gulf of America” on Maps, with a message appearing saying that “Posting is currently turned off.”
Posting is currently turned off for this type of place.
Some types of places are more likely to receive posts, like reviews, that violate Google’s policies. To prevent this, Google has turned off posting.
A linked support page offers a few more details on short-term and long-term restrictions on these places.
Alongside disabling new reviews, Google has also allegedly been removing recent negative reviews related to the name change, as Forbes and the BBC note. The company hasn’t directly addressed removals, but the latest review showing is from around a month ago.
This is all in line with the company’s previously established policy on “real-time abuse.” In 2023, Google detailed that it would take down “policy-violating content” and disable “new contributions.” The company offered an example of a spike in negative reviews on a local bar in Missouri, where the company both disabled new reviews temporarily and removed reviews that broke Maps’ policy. The same blog post also mentions actions Google took to avoid similar “unhelpful content” around polling stations during the 2020 US election.
Another recent example of Google disabling reviews for a location due to review-bombing happened in December 2024 when Google disabled reviews and posts for a McDonald’s location in Pennslyvania, where Luigi Mangione was arrested.
More on Google Maps:
- Google Maps tests new weather-related incident reports on app & Android Auto
- Are Google Maps incident reports too distracting? [Poll]
- Google Maps tests shrinking pins into small dots
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