Google redesignated Lake Ontario as “Lake America” on maps seen by US users Sunday after President Donald Trump announced he was renaming the body of water, with a Canadian official slamming the cross-border tensions as “absolutely backwards.”
People in Canada will still see Lake Ontario, the Indigenous-rooted name used for the lake since the 17th century, on their devices and computers, the US-based tech giant said.
Apple’s Maps app that comes installed on all iPhones makes no mention of “Lake America” on its maps as of Sunday morning.
Google said it made its change in line with the US Geographic Names Information System (GNIS), the official federal database for geographic names.
“Since we update Google Maps to reflect name changes in official government sources, which is GNIS for the US, people using Maps in the US will see ‘Lake America,’ those in Canada will continue to see ‘Lake Ontario,’ and those outside of the US and Canada will see both names,” Google said on its blog.