Google Maps Accused of Politicizing Its Labeling After Renaming Lake Ontario
Google Maps has been accused of politicizing its labeling after it incorrectly renamed Lake Ontario as 'Lake America'. The change was made in August 2026, and a reader from Kyle expressed their disappointment with the decision. According to the reader, Google Maps had previously mislabeled the Gulf of Mexico as 'Gulf of America' in February 2025.
The reader believes that this is evidence that Google Maps can no longer be trusted as a reliable reference tool. They claim that international bodies of water are named by committees of cartographers and cannot be renamed by an individual, including President Donald Trump.
As a result, the reader has decided to disable Google Maps on their devices and switch to using a competitor instead. This decision is likely to inconvenience them due to the tight integration of Google Maps with Android and Chrome.