America now has a gulf and a lake: Apple & Google Maps rename Lake Ontario to Lake America

Apple Maps has renamed Lake Ontario as Lake America for users in the U.S., following a similar move by Google after President Donald Trump ordered the change, according to reporting from Bloomberg. The lake, one of North America’s five Great Lakes, sits on the border of New York and Ontario.

Google Maps changed the name for U.S. users on Aug. 29, two days after Trump’s executive order, while Canada still sees Lake Ontario and users outside the two countries see both names, USA TODAY confirmed.

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Different platforms, different responses

MapQuest took the opposite approach. The company said, per USA TODAY, “We’re not changing it,” and later added, “We are aware that Lake Ontario is being correctly labeled on our map.” According to the report, the platform also launched a map generator that lets users create their own names for the lake, similarly to its “name your own Gulf” generator that targeted the president’s renaming of the Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America.

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Apple declined to comment on the change, but Reuters said the update followed the new name’s appearance in the U.S. Geographic Names Information System, USA TODAY reported. The move came on the first day of Apple chief executive John Ternus’ tenure, even as Tim Cook remains responsible for the company’s relationships with the White House and other governments, Bloomberg confirmed.

President Trump’s order gives the Interior Department 30 days to formalize the change in federal databases and materials, Bloomberg added. The shift comes amid an escalating trade dispute between the U.S. and Canada.