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Google Maps Renames Lake Ontario to Lake America for US Users Following Trump Order

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19 sources across 14 countries

Who reported this

  • MS NOW United States · Left · Versant (spun off from NBCUniversal)
  • CNN United States · Centre-left · Warner Bros. Discovery
  • WIRED United States · Centre-left · Conde Nast (Advance Publications)
  • Bloomberg United States · Centre · Bloomberg L.P. (Michael Bloomberg)
  • Der Spiegel Germany · Centre-left · ~50% staff-owned
  • Deutsche Welle Germany · Centre · Public · German federal public-law corporation
  • Frankfurter Allgemeine Germany · Centre-right · FAZIT-Stiftung (foundation)
  • Infobae Argentina · Centre-right · Daniel Hadad
  • The Daily Star Bangladesh · Centre · Mediaworld Ltd
  • Le Monde France · Centre-left · Fonds pour l'independance de la presse
  • South China Morning Post Hong Kong · Centre-right · Alibaba Group
  • Tempo English Indonesia · Centre-left · PT Tempo Inti Media
  • Corriere della Sera Italy · Centre-right · RCS MediaGroup (Cairo Communication)
  • Asahi Shimbun Japan · Centre-left · Asahi Shimbun Company (family and employee held)
  • Dawn Pakistan · Centre-left · Pakistan Herald Publications (Haroon family)
  • Daily Maverick South Africa · Centre-left · Reader-funded
  • El Pais Spain · Centre-left · Grupo PRISA
  • Taipei Times Taiwan · Centre-left · Liberty Times Group
  • The Guardian United Kingdom · Centre-left · Scott Trust Limited

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.

Google Maps has updated its platform to display Lake Ontario as Lake America for users located in the United States. The change follows an executive order issued by President Donald Trump on Thursday, which directed US federal agencies to use the new name in official records and updated the US Geographic Names Information System (GNIS). Google stated that the update aligns with its policy of reflecting official government sources for geographic names. Users in Canada will continue to see the name Lake Ontario, while users in other countries will see both names listed.

The renaming occurs amid an escalating trade war between the United States and Canada, characterized by tit for tat tariffs on billions of dollars in goods. President Trump has previously ordered a similar name change for the Gulf of Mexico, which Google also implemented for US users in 2025. While Google has adopted the change, other mapping services such as Apple Maps and Waze have continued to use the name Lake Ontario as of Sunday.

Canadian officials have rejected the new designation. Prime Minister Mark Carney emphasized the name's Indigenous roots, noting that the word Ontario comes from the Wendat language and predates the formation of both the US and Canada. Ontario Premier Doug Ford unveiled a large sign on the Canadian shore that reads Lake Ontario: Now and Always. Ford described the renaming effort as absurd and compared it to a sketch from Saturday Night Live. Additionally, some Canadian government websites that pull data from Google Maps automatically displayed the new name, prompting Ontario Public Services Minister Stephen Crawford to announce a review of those sites to ensure the original name is used.

President Trump and his administration have celebrated the change on social media. Trump has continued to criticize Canada on Truth Social, claiming the country has been ripping off the United States for years. In response, some Canadian leaders and historians have characterized the move as an attempt to subordinate Canada or erase Indigenous history.

How each side framed it

Left
These outlets emphasized the aggressive nature of the Trump administration, describing the president as a bully and focusing on the defiance of Canadian leaders.
Centre-left
These outlets focused on the absurdity of the move and highlighted the erasure of Indigenous history and the tension of the trade war.
Centre
These outlets provided a balanced account of the official statements from both governments and the specific technical details of the map updates.
Centre-right
These outlets framed the event as a symbolic gesture within a diplomatic and economic conflict, emphasizing the technical policy Google used to justify the change.

Sources

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