Google Maps reclassifies the U.S. as a 'sensitive country'

I found the democracy index for "the world" interesting. In 2006 it was at 5.5 and in 2023 down to 5.2.

US currently 7.8.

The US is currently experiencing a ~~coup d'état~~ self coup. The current Republican admin has systematically fired government employees that didn’t vote Republican, any employees viewed as “enemies” have been fired and the admin even locked out a large swath of workers or figureheads that could challenge them - and a large portion of those actions have been explicitly illegal. None of that even covers the extreme targeting of civil rights in only the last two weeks. Dropping the US rating is not “childish nonsense” unless you are simply tuned out of what is actively happening.

Because those are the only two options: as bad as Iran and China or….10/10?

When the leadership of a country is actively smashing all checks and balances and bribing &/or coercing the other normally (in a democracy) independent branches of government and society to bend to the will of the executive, the country is moving towards autocracy, and both citizens and business need to watch their sixes.

Reclassifying this administration as "sensitive" seems an extremely mild response to the situation.

[edit: add missing word "independent"]

Perhaps because they have decided that it is cheaper for them to comply with the "childish nonsense" of changing toponyms for political reasons than to stand their ground. Just like operating in Saudi Arabia is worth labeling Persian Gulf as Arab Gulf.

> That is not what the term means

I disagree about that specific point. It’s one of the meanings of “America”, and is used that way throughout the world. From https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/America:

1 either continent (North America or South America) of the western hemisphere

2 or the Americas the lands of the western hemisphere including North, Central, and South America and the West Indies

3 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Similarly in Wiktionary: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/America#Proper_noun

“In English, the unqualified term "America" often refers to the United States of America as a synecdoche, with "American" typically referring to people and things from that country. […]”

Regarding the gulf naming, “Gulf of North America” would seem somewhat appropriate, if a mouthful.

Colombia is the country in South America. This country was almost named the United States of Columbia at its founding. I like the Spanish translation of Americans being something like Unitedstatesians.

I don't think Google Maps classifying three of the largest countries in the world by area as "sensitive", whatever that is supposed to mean, helps the situation.

Favorite case of that is Europeans making remarks like “Gosh, it’s so annoying when Americans assume Europe is all one country”.

I won't dispute your moral reasoning, but realistically this has as much a chance of succeeding as calling the current year 02025¹: it will mostly just annoy people.

1: Cf. The Long Now Foundation.

The country is spelled Colombia.

> but I do have a problem with Trump and a lot of other people using the term America or American to refer solely to the United States. That is not what the term means and that's not the name of our country.

You're conflating America with the Americas.

The Americas is the collective name of the continents.

America is just shorthand for the United States of America.

Just like Mexico is shorthand for its official name, the United Mexican States.

And there's no confusion because there's basically never any situation where somebody wants to refer themselves as an inhabitant of the Americas, the same way nobody calls themselves Eurasian. It's too large an area to be useful. It's two continents (in most cultures). Geographically at the largest scale, people tend to refer to themselves as North Americans, South Americans, Latin Americans, and so forth.

Hemisphere is a half of a sphere, typically we speak about northern and southern hemispheres in context such as the winter and summer being flipped depending on the hemisphere, or the Coriolis Effect etc. At first I thought you refer to America as a hemisphere, because you could divide Earth into two such hemispheres, sharing poles, that one of them is dominated by Americas (land-wise). But then you say "Columbia is also a term to refer to this hemisphere" and I'm lost. I googled "Columbia hemispheres" and couldn't find anything interesting.

I once asked a Canadian if she identifies as American. She did not, in 2014. As a European, I've unfortunately only had the chance to ask that question once. Would love to hear other Canadians' thoughts.

Eh, common usage often precedes official changes. I grew up thinking there was a US state called "Rhode Island", and finally in 2020 that became the reality. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/rhode-island-...

> I don't have a problem with wanting to rename the Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America but I do have a problem with Trump and a lot of other people using the term America or American to refer solely to the United States.

"The United States" isn't the name of our country either, does that bother you? Does "US" or "The States?" Those aren't the name of the country either. It isn't in any way exclusionary, it's just a hell of lot shorter and easier to say.

People who call themselves Londoners aren't being exclusionary when they're in the UK anymore than are the Londoners who use that to describe themselves in Canada. They, like Americans in the US, are simply describing what they are, not limiting what other people aren't or can't be.

> We could be called America if we want but someone would have to propose a name change

Who proposed the name change from "tissue paper" to "kleenex"?

> for other countries that don’t wish to go by his whims.

I assume that this includes the entire planet outside of the US and most the US population. It's 2025 and nobody calls them "freedom fries" either.

Google is not an authority. Nor does Google claim to be. "Sensitive country" means a specific thing. Rachel Ulatowski is incorrect in her insinuations on what it means.