Apple has begun displaying Lake Ontario as “Lake America” in its Maps app, in line with US President Donald Trump’s request. As the trade war between Canada and the United States continues, Trump signed an executive order in late August calling for the name of the body of water between Canada’s Ontario and the US state of New York to be changed. Google had also implemented the change shortly before. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum had said that Trump had spoken directly with Apple and that the name change could be made soon. Google and Apple had also changed the name of the Gulf of Mexico to “Gulf of America” following an executive order Trump signed early in his second term. While the two companies faced criticism, MapQuest opposed the decision, saying, “We’re not changing it.” The app later rose to number one in the navigation category on the App Store and to number 8 among all free apps. MapQuest General Manager Doug Berger announced that hundreds of thousands of people had downloaded the app.
Why it matters
The development shows that place names in mapping apps are not merely a technical choice, and that political decisions can intersect with technology companies’ app policies. The lake located between Ontario and New York appearing under different names on different platforms raises the question of how shared geographic references will be preserved for users in Canada and the United States. Apple and Google’s decision and MapQuest’s opposing stance show that companies do not respond to the demands of political authorities in the same way. MapQuest’s rise in the app store and its announcement of hundreds of thousands of downloads indicate that the reaction to the name change can influence platform preferences; however, the text does not explain the permanence of this movement or users’ motivations.