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Google Maps renames Lake Ontario ‘Lake America’ for US users

From Confidencial · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources New plan
  • Google Maps now displays Lake Ontario as “Lake America” for users in the United States, following a name change ordered by Donald Trump.
  • Canadian users will continue to see “Lake Ontario,” while users elsewhere will see both names; the change has no international recognition.
  • Ontario Premier Doug Ford called the move “completely absurd” and said Canadians would not adopt the new name.

Google Maps has given Lake Ontario a new name for users in the United States: “Lake America.” The White House celebrated the change after Donald Trump unilaterally ordered the renaming of the body of water shared by the United States and Canada.

The decision has not received international recognition and immediately drew criticism from Canadian authorities. Doug Ford, the premier of Ontario, dismissed it as “completely absurd” in comments to ABC News. “Nobody is going to call it Lake America,” he said.

It is completely absurd.

— Doug FordThe Ontario premier criticized the renaming of Lake Ontario in comments to ABC News.

Google said in a blog post that it changed the name for users in the United States to match official US government sources, specifically the Geographic Names Information System. The platform will keep displaying “Lake Ontario” to users in Canada.

In the rest of the world, Google Maps will show both names for the large cross-border lake. The arrangement echoes Trump’s earlier order to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America,” a move strongly contested by Mexico and reflected in the display choices of Google and Apple applications.

Nobody is going to call it Lake America.

— Doug FordFord said Canadians would reject the new name.
About this summary

Originally published by Confidencial in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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