US President Donald Trump posted a map on social media on Aug. 30 showing Lake Ontario — which lies on the U.S.-Canada border — labeled as "Lake America," a move that has drawn criticism from Canada.
Google confirmed in a statement that it has updated the lake's name to "Lake America" for U.S. users, in order to "reflect the executive order signed by President Trump renaming the lake."
The executive order affects the U.S. Geographic Names Information System, which sets the standard for official U.S. maps. However, it has no bearing on Canadian naming conventions or how the lake is referred to elsewhere in the world.
Last year, Google made a similar change for the Gulf of Mexico, relabeling it as the "Gulf of America" after Trump signed an executive order renaming that body of water following his inauguration.
Lake Ontario is one of North America's Great Lakes, straddling the border between the United States and Canada, with the Canadian province of Ontario to the north and the U.S. state of New York to the south. Amid escalating trade disputes between the two countries, Trump signed an executive order on Aug. 27 renaming the shared lake "American Lake," declaring the order "effective immediately." The move has sparked backlash and criticism from Canadian officials.
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