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Apple deadnamed the Gulf of America and conservatives are triggered

Summary

Rep. Dan Crenshaw criticized Apple Maps for not renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, as mandated by Trump’s recent executive order titled “Restoring Names that Honor American Greatness.”

Crenshaw’s complaint reflects broader conservative frustration, as tech platforms and the global community continue to use the original name.

Critics compare the move to past nationalist gestures like renaming french fries "freedom fries," accusing conservatives of embracing identity politics and culture wars despite their political dominance.

The name change is unlikely to gain international traction.

238 comments

  • As someone who worked in mapping, many people don't realize how much this kind of BS actually comes up.

    The map you see in Google / Apple maps isn't the map the whole world sees. What you see is what's culturally / legally appropriate for viewers in your region.

    For example, in parts of India it's legally required that Jammu and Kashmir be displayed as being part of India on their maps. On Pakistan's maps it's legally required to be weirdly ambiguous, with a strange open border that doesn't properly close. The rest of the world gets dotted lines indicating it's complicated.

    For most of the world the body of water between Korea, Japan and Vladivostok is labeled as "The Sea of Japan", but users in Korea will see "The East Sea". Is the body of water around Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, UAE, etc. the Persian Gulf or the Arabian Gulf? Depends on where you are when you ask that question.

    This even has a strange effect when all the countries involved agree that a certain geographic feature is the border, but that geographic feature is a river. Some rivers, especially ones like the Amazon river keep shifting. Sediment piles up, erosion happens, and the river shifts. The river is still the border, but now someone has to go in and adjust the political border to match the river's new position.

    So, if Trump does do something official to rename the Gulf of Mexico, the online mapping companies (and any offline ones that are left) will probably follow the rule and rename it... for their American users. The rest of the world will still see it as the Gulf of Mexico. It will just be yet another one of those funny exceptions the companies have to keep track of while displaying maps for a certain subset of users.

  • Surprised he hasn't tried to slap his name on something by EO yet, like a blue state.

    "New York is such a weak name-- you know it, I know it-- I had an uncle that went to New York folks, great man, smart man. He told me once with tears in his eyes, New York could be great, but it's so sad, could be great though. So it needs a biglier name, powerful name, not weak, powerful. From today I've decided it's now called, Trump Trork."

  • Only about a third of the Gulf of Mexico is US territory, so how can the US president unilaterally rename it? Seems Mexico has the larger claim to naming rights.

  • The Gulf of Mexico didn't choose its supposed new name. This is not deadnaming. Unless there is a positive definition of the word that I'm not aware of, this attempt to rename is the opposite of the meaning. The use of the deadnaming in this context trivializes and distorts what it means. Shame on Gizmodo.

    EDIT: Sorry, didn't pick up on the sarcasm.

    • Its making fun of how Conservatives will deadname actual people but then throw a hissy fit when folks dont immediately change how they refer to something of little relevance. Its drawing attention to their braindead hypocrisy.

238 comments