Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has formally requested Alphabet Inc.'s GOOG GOOGL Google to reconsider renaming the Gulf of Mexico
What Happened: The request follows an executive order by U.S. President Donald Trump to rename the body of water as the "Gulf of America."
The renaming will only affect Google Maps users in the U.S., while the rest of the world will continue to see the Gulf of Mexico.
Sheinbaum argues that the U.S. lacks the legal authority to change the name internationally, citing the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which limits a country’s sovereign territory to 12 nautical miles from its coastline, reported BBC.
She also poked fun at Trump’s decision saying, “By the way, we are also going to ask for Mexican America to appear on the map.”
Why It Matters: Google has a history of adjusting place names in regions with territorial disputes. For instance, it refers to the body of water between Japan and South Korea as the "Sea of Japan (East Sea)."
In 2012, Iran warned of potential legal action against Google after the company removed "Persian Gulf" from its maps. In some regions, the waterway is now labeled as the "Persian Gulf (Arabian Gulf)."
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Google has also reportedly reclassified the U.S. as a “sensitive country,” a label typically reserved for nations with strict governments or border disputes, such as China and Russia.
Price Action: As of this writing, Alphabet’s Class A shares were up 0.35% in after-hours trading at $201.57, while Class C shares climbed 0.34% to $203.32. Earlier on Thursday, Class A shares closed 2.79% higher at $200.87, with Class C shares rising 2.76% to $202.63, according to Benzinga Pro data.
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