Google adds US to ‘sensitive country’ list alongside China, Russia: Here’s why

Google Maps

Google has marked the US as a “sensitive country” in its maps division. This tag is usually given to countries with strict government or border disputes. Recently, US President Donald Trump changed the names of a few places in the US. Like the Gulf of Mexico was renamed to the Gulf of America, similarly the Mount Denali was changed to Mount Mckinley.

As per a report by CNBC, Google’s decision to reclassify the US as a sensitive country came after Trump updated the official maps with new names.When a country is labeled "sensitive," it means that some names and borders on Google Maps might be shown differently than in other countries. For example, the Gulf Of Mexico, which has been renamed to Gulf of America will still appear as Gulf of Mexico to the users residing in Mexico.However, users living outside the US and Mexico, will see both the names.

Ever since Trump began his second term as the US president, big tech companies like Meta, Tiktok Amazon have made changes in their policies to match his administration decision.

Google’s "sensitive countries" list already includes China, Russia, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq. Now, the U.S. and Mexico have been added. This means Google may handle map labels for these countries differently than others.

It is still unclear if this change only affects Google Maps or if it will apply to other Google services as well.