As a Canadian, I agree this is ridiculous.

Having worked in the mapping sector for a bit, it makes sense.

Google/Apple are not deciding what the lake is called. They are pulling data from the GNIS.

This way people in a region will see what their government decides is the correct version for their people.

Let's take this out of the heated debate.

In the most of the world and Iran (strangely we agree on this), we recognize a body of water known as the Persian Gulf. For the Arab League states, they call this the Arabian Gulf.

Is that Google being evil? Should Google decide what this is called? Or just leave it to the region to decide themselves.

What about the border of Kashmir? How should they handle that?