Google Maps has blocked critiques for the Gulf of Mexico, after criticism of its choice to label it “Gulf of America” for customers within the US.
The tech big up to date the title of the placement on Wednesday after President Donald Trump ordered it to be modified in official authorities paperwork.
Clicking on the label for the Gulf in Google Maps now brings up a word saying “posting is at the moment turned off”.
Google additionally seems to have deleted some damaging critiques left within the wake of its title change.
The BBC has requested the corporate for remark.
“Some kinds of locations usually tend to obtain posts, like critiques, that violate Google’s insurance policies,” the label added to the Gulf end result states.
“To forestall this, Google has turned off posting.”
The newest overview left for the placement end result on Google Maps now seems to be from a month in the past.
Some customers are claiming on social media that damaging critiques they posted to object to the change have been eliminated, and have accused Google of “censorship.”
So-called “review-bombing” has develop into a well-liked type of on-line protest towards firms or companies that seem in Google Search or Maps outcomes.
The tactic has additionally been deployed to govern an app’s scores on cellular marketplaces.
In 2020, individuals used it to criticise President Trump’s then-proposal to ban TikTok – reportedly leaving tons of of crucial critiques on his re-election marketing campaign app on Apple’s App Retailer.
It was additionally utilized by GameStop merchants to hit again at stock-trading apps reminiscent of Robinhood that launched buying and selling restrictions amid the 2021 market upset.
Google says it takes motion to stop abuse of its overview mechanisms by utilizing automated strategies to detect “uncommon patterns” of exercise – reminiscent of a location or enterprise having a sudden spike in a single star critiques.
It provides motion might embrace quickly disabling contributions to listings or eradicating “policy-violating content material” to stop abuse of its instruments or faux critiques.
Forbes reported on Thursday that the corporate had “tacitly admitted” to eradicating critiques criticising the Gulf location’s renaming on Maps.
The BBC has requested Google to verify whether or not it has deleted them.
It comes after Google stated in a weblog publish on Monday that US customers would see “Gulf of America” substitute Gulf of Mexico on Maps.
It stated this adopted a “longstanding coverage” of reflecting title modifications up to date in official US authorities sources.
The title would stay unchanged in Mexico and the remainder of the world would see “Gulf of America” added subsequent to its present title in brackets, Google added.
Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum wrote a letter to the corporate asking them to not rename the Gulf in a letter in late January.
In the meantime, Apple has additionally modified the title for US customers of its personal Maps app.
The White Home highlighted it in a publish on X (previously Twitter) on Wednesday – with a picture of Apple Maps displaying “Gulf of America” as an alternative of Gulf of Mexico.