In defense of Google Maps

Google has gotten a lot of flak for updating their Maps product for US-based visitors to show a different name for Lake Ontario. Google made the change following an asinine Executive Order directing the Board on Geographic Names to update its database. That is the only thing the EO actually did, and, I am sad to report, it was an entirely lawful EO.

Here's the thing, though: Google updating its database to follow the BGN's is apolitical. It's the most neutral stance on the idocy they could have taken. I would bet you all the money in my pockets against all the money in your pockets that a majority of the people working on the Google Maps team think the name change was stupid, just like nearly everyone else in the world. But hand-editing the data update they received from BGN last week would represent a pretty serious deviation from their mission to stay out of domestic US politics.¹

Blaming Google for the OAFPOTUS's tantrum and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum's boot licking is shooting the messenger. This deviation from how the BGN actually works² (and the previous one) will be undone before the end of January 2029, along with thousands of other EOs that this kakistocracy has smeared on the republic over the past 20 months.