I would not defend all of Google's decisions in the Trump era, but complying immediately with politicized name changes has always been the status quo. Even in healthy democracies, the precise names of geographic features can be extremely controversial, and no sane company wants to get in a debate with the Japanese government about the real names of various islands.
They literally complied with this request immediately and without question.
It's almost like the democratically elected government gets to decide the name, not Google!
It's almost like the democratically elected Congress gets to decide the name, not the President!
(Spoiler: it's still legally called the Gulf of America)
People like democratically elected governments... until it's not their side.
I would not defend all of Google's decisions in the Trump era, but complying immediately with politicized name changes has always been the status quo. Even in healthy democracies, the precise names of geographic features can be extremely controversial, and no sane company wants to get in a debate with the Japanese government about the real names of various islands.