I know this story is a few weeks old at this point, but given that just yesterday I was chatting with someone in my own life who was completely unaware of it, I thought I might take a moment to highlight why it's not being reported well in our media, and most importantly talk about what Google's open signal that they'd love to collaborate with Downmarket Mussolini and our fascist Pork Reich government on whatever nightmare bullshit these nazis want to do, actually means.
https://truthout.org/articles/amid-other-pro-trump-moves-google-maps-makes-gulf-of-america-name-change/
Amid Other Pro-Trump Moves, Google Maps Makes “Gulf of America” Name Change
"In the U.S., the gulf will be displayed as the “Gulf of America.” In Mexico, it will remain the “Gulf of Mexico.” From anywhere else in the world, the body of water will be labeled as “Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America).”
Although the change is consistent with the Google Maps policy on names for geographic locations elsewhere, the move comes as Google has made numerous attempts to endear itself to Trump over the past several weeks.
The company, for example, gave $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund. It also opted to end its diversity hiring targets following Trump’s executive order terminating diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs and funding across the federal government. And along with the changes to its maps this week, Google removed Black History Month and Pride Month from its list of annual celebrations on Google Calendar.
Google also announced earlier this month that it would abandon its Responsible AI pledge, which included a promise not to use artificial intelligence to develop tech that could cause “overall harm” — including weapons and surveillance systems."
In terms of media coverage and how for-profit news orgs have treated this story, we're legitimately talking about a catastrophic failure to connect the obvious dots and ominous historical overtones in this situation. Most outlets are hell bent on covering Google's desire to collaborate with a fascist US government as a pathetic private sector attempt to curry favor with Trump, or story about Downmarket Mussolini's laughable obsession with names on maps. The sinister reality however is that it is in precisely HOW Google is choosing to curry favor with Trump, that how far they're willing to go reveals itself. Eliminating Black History Month from the calendar is objectively supporting a white supremacist regime objective, just as eliminating Pride Month from the calendar supports a heteronormative, anti-LGBTQ agenda. Changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico on its maps, even if it's just for American users, is an open signal of support for the Trump administration's hyper-nationalist, and increasingly expansionist agenda. This isn't currying favor with fascists; Google is signaling to the fascist administration, that they're ready to HELP THEM literally do fascism, presumably for profit.
All of which leads us to Google's abandonment of the responsible AI pledge, and why history doesn't repeat itself but often rhymes. In the lead up to the literal Holocaust, IBM (yes, THAT IBM) designed and supplied the Nazi Party with a punch card computing system that made it possible to identify and catalogue Jewish people and other targets of the Nazi regime for extermination; and they made a handsome profit doing so - as detailed in Edwin Black's groundbreaking work "IBM and the Holocaust: How America's Most Powerful Corporation Helped Nazi Germany Count The Jews." The fact is mass deportations, incarcerations, and exterminations are a data-centric activities, you simply can't undertake that kind of (repugnant) project without a way to organize, categorize, and easily access information about your targets; a task that becomes considerably easier if you can automate collection and analysis through say, fake AI programs. At its heart, Google is ultimately a data collection and organization company, which *already* maintains vast amounts of information about the populations and groups the Trump administration is threatening. And now that company is openly signaling to Downmarket Mussolini that they are not only "down to fascism" but are both equipped to help conduct various types of mass surveillance and organized purges, as well as prepared abandon ethical guidelines that would prevent them from doing so if the price is right - just like IBM did in the 1930's and the lead up to the Holocaust.
Of course you're not going to find that kind of analysis in the pro-capitalist, for profit media because those folks are just as busy trying to figure out how *they* can turn a profit from Trump's fascist agenda too; and that is a big part of why this modern fascist movement is winning, and easily.
