By AJ Dellinger Published February 13, 2025 | Comments (0) | The Gulf of Mexico as labeled by Google Maps Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu via Getty Images Do you have any hot takes or strong opinions about the Gulf of Mexico? Well, youre going to have to find somewhere other than Google Maps to share them, because the platform is currently restricting users from leaving comments or reviews on the Gulf, as spotted by the BBC, following Googles decision to play along with the Trump administrations decision to change the body of waters name to the Gulf of America. The Gulf current has a 4.5-star rating on Google Maps with nearly 7,000 reviews, which is a pretty strong endorsement of the beautiful bay. But directly under the review score is a notification that says Posting is currently turned off. Google explains: Some types of places are more likely to receive posts, like reviews, that violate Googles policies. To prevent this, Google has turned off posting. Now, the Gulf itself does not appear all that controversial among reviewers, who describe it as one of the most beautiful places on earth, a fishermans paradise, and the Best gulf ever. But if you sort the reviews by most recent, youll notice that no feedback has been left on the Gulf of Mexico since a month ago. That appears to be because Google has taken it upon itself to clean up the one-star reviews that users started leaving after the company changed the bays label to the Gulf of America in accordance with President Trumps executive order. Users definitely did leave negative reviews once the name change took effect. You can find examples on pick your social platform of choice, and there are threads encouraging people to express their displeasure over the change on Reddit. But those started getting cleaned up pretty quickly, and now Google has decided its just best to prevent new reviews from going up at all. The company has also shut off the ability to suggest an edit to the location, presumably because people were suggesting it change the name back to the Gulf of Mexico. Google can reasonably claim that this whole fiasco is just a matter of protocol, from the name change to the handling of the barrage of one-star reviews. Google pulls its location information from the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS), so once the name change took effect there at the behest of Trumps penstroke, it showed up on Google Maps. And while the negative review protest is a useful way for users to express their displeasure, Google regularly restricts posts on locations that get flooded with activity.So yeah, its all just company policy in action. And sometimes company policy makes it look like you, as a corporate entity, are kowtowing to the whims of an autocrat. So it goes.Daily NewsletterYou May Also Like By Ed Cara Published February 13, 2025 By Matthew Gault Published February 13, 2025 By AJ Dellinger Published February 13, 2025 By Matt Novak Published February 13, 2025 By Passant Rabie Published February 12, 2025 By Thomas Maxwell Published February 12, 2025