Google’s renaming of the Gulf of Mexico for US users has triggered diplomatic outrage, legal action from Mexico, and a global debate over who controls the world’s digital maps
By Doug Specht, Universtiy of Westminster
Beneath the sun-bleached skies of the Caribbean, where the Atlantic’s azure waters merge with the Gulf of Mexico’s warmer currents, a modern geopolitical drama continues to unfold. This body of water, christened the Golfo de México by Spanish cartographers in the early 17th century, has become the latest flashpoint in a centuries-old struggle: who holds the power to name the world?
In April 2025, the US House of Representatives voted 211–206 to pass the Gulf of America Act – a legislative push to rebrand the basin as the ‘Gulf of America’. The move codifies Executive Order 14172, which President Donald Trump signed on his inauguration day, 20 January 2025, stating the US ‘do most of the work there, and it’s ours’. Critics see this as a clear move of domination – an imperialist power grab designed to erase 400 years of regional identity.
The Gulf’s nomenclature has always been political. Spanish explorers mapped it as part of Nueva España, while 19th-century U.S. expansionists eyed its coasts during the Mexican–American War. Today, 44 per cent of the Gulf’s waters lie within the US Exclusive Economic Zone, and while just under 50 per cent is within Mexico’s EEZ, its identity remains tethered to Mexico – a symbolism the Act seeks to sever.
While Trump’s comments were seen by many as problematic, it was the entrance of Google that turned the matter on its head. Within hours of the House vote, the tech giant rolled out an algorithmic split: U.S. users now see ‘Gulf of America’, while Mexican and international audiences still encounter ‘Gulf of Mexico’. This digital sleight of hand has drawn fierce criticism. The changes move Google from being a mapmaker towards being a quasi-diplomat. By complying with the U.S. order but localising the change, they are walking a tightrope between corporate interests and geopolitical realities.
Mexico’s foreign ministry has denounced the renaming as a violation of its historical and legal sovereignty, and is now preparing to bring a lawsuit against Google.
Legal action
While the U.S. controls 44 per cent of the Gulf’s continental shelf, Mexican waters claim 49 per cent, with Cuba holding the remainder. Yet Google’s geolocation-driven rebranding applies the ‘Gulf of America’ label to the entire basin for US-based users – regardless of maritime boundaries. Google’s algorithm is effectively eroding the legal concept of maritime sovereignty. Mexico’s President, Claudia Sheinbaum, had previously written to Google to express concern over the expansiveness of the renaming, but with no response, has now pushed for legal action.
See which name Google delivers to you?
Mexico’s legal stance is that Google, as a de facto global cartographer, has assumed a state-like authority by implementing the U.S. renaming beyond American jurisdiction. This, Mexico states, has caused significant cultural harm and the erosion of territorial integrity.
The tech giant’s defence hinges on a contentious distinction – that it complies with local laws in each jurisdiction. U.S. users see ‘Gulf of America’, while Mexican users retain the traditional name. Yet this bifurcation creates a cartographic schizophrenia. A Cuban fishing vessel in Mexican waters, for instance, appears in ‘American’ territory on a Floridian’s smartphone, but remains in the ‘Gulf of Mexico’ when viewed from Veracruz.
Mexico has escalated its countermeasures, reaching out to UNESCO in an attempt to have the Gulf’s name protected under cultural heritage frameworks, and also urging Latin American allies to reject the name change in their own maps and digital platforms.
Who owns our maps?
As the Gulf’s identity fractures along digital and political lines, the practical consequences are rippling far beyond the rarefied world of diplomats and historians. The renaming saga is no longer just a matter of national pride or historical record – it is now a source of real-world confusion and disruption, exposing the profound influence that maps, and digital mapping companies such as Google, wield over our daily lives and global systems.
This argument is about more than naming rights – it reminds us of the extent to which maps don’t reflect but instead create and shape the world. Throughout history, maps have never been mere depictions of geography; they have always been instruments of power. The authority to draw boundaries, name places, and decide what is visible or invisible on a map has traditionally belonged to states, monarchs or imperial powers. As Brian Harley famously observed, ‘as much as guns and warships, maps have been the weapons of imperialism’.
Today, the locus of cartographic power is rapidly shifting. Where once the authority to map the world was the preserve of empires and governments, it now increasingly resides with digital technology companies – most notably Google. The reach of platforms like Google Maps is unprecedented, shaping how billions perceive and navigate the world every day. Yet this transfer of power comes with profound risks. Unlike states, which are at least nominally accountable to citizens, digital giants operate according to commercial interests and opaque algorithms.
Their decisions – whether to rename a sea, erase a border, or prioritise certain places – can have immediate and far-reaching effects on social realities, international relations, and even legal rights. The unchecked authority of these platforms to redraw the world at a keystroke, often without public oversight or recourse, raises urgent questions about sovereignty, representation, and the very nature of truth in the digital age. Google’s ability to toggle the Gulf’s name at the flick of a switch illustrates the unprecedented authority these companies now wield – a power that can reinforce, or undermine, the sovereignty of nations with a single update.
As Mexico’s legal battle unfolds and the US Senate prepares its final vote, the Gulf’s dual existence stands as a cautionary tale. The lines on our maps, and the names we give them, are not fixed truths but living artefacts of negotiation, memory and power. In a world where digital platforms mediate our understanding of place, the struggle over the Gulf’s name is more than a regional dispute – it is a glimpse into the future of global geography, where the authority to define reality itself is up for grabs.
Dr Doug Specht is a Chartered Geographer, a Reader in Cultural Geography and Communication, and Head of the School of Media and Communication at the University of Westminster.
