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Apple and Google Rename Lake Ontario to Lake America Following Trump Order

morning · · thread: US Appeals Court Rules Against Trump Administration's Termination of Climate Grants

9 sources across 7 countries · 1 of them is linked to a state

Who reported this

  • BBC News United Kingdom · Centre · Public · Licence fee, royal charter
  • Reuters United Kingdom · Centre · Thomson Reuters Corporation
  • CNN United States · Centre-left · Warner Bros. Discovery
  • Wall Street Journal United States · Centre-right · News Corp (Murdoch family trust)
  • Tecnoblog Brazil · Centre · Founder-owned (Thiago Mobilon)
  • France 24 France · Centre · Public · France Medias Monde (French state holding)
  • Der Spiegel Germany · Centre-left · ~50% staff-owned
  • Al Jazeera Qatar · Centre-left · State-affiliated · Qatari government funded
  • Daily Maverick South Africa · Centre-left · Reader-funded

What the colours mean

  • Left
  • Centre-left
  • Centre
  • Centre-right
  • Right
  • A hatched block means the outlet is affiliated with, or controlled by, a state.

Political lean describes where an outlet sits within the politics of its own country. It is never a position on a single global scale.

Political lean is comparable inside one country and not across them, which is why the bar groups by country first. Publicly funded broadcasters are not marked as state-linked.

The owner of each outlet is listed as a matter of record, not as a judgement about the outlet.

Apple and Google have updated their mapping services to display Lake Ontario as Lake America for users based in the United States. The change follows an executive order from President Donald Trump, which directed the U.S. Department of the Interior to update the Geographic Names Information Service. The renaming occurs amid a trade dispute between the U.S. and Canada, with Washington imposing 50 percent tariffs on approximately 20 billion dollars worth of Canadian goods after trade talks collapsed. In response, Canada has pledged to implement dollar for dollar counter tariffs, and Ontario Premier Doug Ford has installed a sign at the lake stating it is Lake Ontario now and always.

While U.S. users see the new name, users in Canada continue to see Lake Ontario. Some reports indicate that users in other parts of the world may see both names. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum stated that President Trump reached out to Apple directly to request the change. This follows a similar pattern from early 2025 when both companies renamed the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America for U.S. users.

Not all mapping services have complied. MapQuest announced it would not change the name, leading to a significant surge in downloads. The app reached the top of the free applications category on the U.S. App Store, with some reports stating usage increased up to 50 times over the previous week. MapQuest's general manager, Doug Berger, stated the company wants to provide an app that maintains names people are familiar with.

Outlets with a center lean generally present the event as a consequence of a trade spat and a government order. Center left outlets frame the move as a controversial demonstration of power by the Trump administration and a source of geopolitical tension. Center right coverage focuses on the technical updates made by the tech companies in response to the presidential order.

How each side framed it

Centre-left
Framed the renaming as a controversial display of power and a source of geopolitical friction.
Centre
Framed the event as a result of a trade dispute and a formal government directive.
Centre-right
Focused on the compliance of tech companies with the executive order.

Sources

100% of the statements in this article were traced back to the source articles listed above.