Questions about how dependent the world is on US data after Google has started falsely showing Lake Ontario as “Lake America” to US users and the rest of the world.
The search engine outfit said it had “updated” Google Maps after US President Donald Trump ordered that Lake Ontario be renamed in the United States after the Canadians were mean to him.
Google said in a blog post that it was following the names assigned by the US Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
“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. These updates follow our long-standing policy for bodies of water with names that vary from country to country, and are starting to roll out now.”
It is the same routine Google used in 2025, when Trump ordered the Gulf of Mexico renamed the Gulf of America. However, the move shows how dependent Canada has been on US tech bros and data. There have been reports of Canadian users waking up to find their lakes renamed because their service providers rely on systems like the GNIS.
Some Canadian papers yesterday suggested that its dependence on US data is now a liability and that it is time to purge systems.
However, in the real world, Trump’s decision to rename the lake has been largely met with mockery and indifference in Canada and the United States.
For those not in the know, the move follows Trump’s latest trade dispute with Canada, amid an escalating trade war that has seen both countries slap billions of dollars in tariffs on each other’s goods.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford answered Trump’s “Lake America” decree on Saturday with a billboard-sized message on the Canadian shoreline: “Lake Ontario. Now and Always.”
