Google Maps recently began showing "Lake America" instead of "Lake Ontario" for people in the United States. The change came just days after President Trump signed an executive order renaming the lake in the middle of his trade dispute with Canada. Google says it made the switch because it believes the change matches names used in official U.S. government records, pointing to the U.S. Geographic Names Information System, a federal database of place names.

The rename doesn't apply everywhere. Google Maps still shows "Lake Ontario" to people in Canada, and shows both names together, "Lake Ontario (Lake America)," to everyone else in the world. Lake Ontario is one of the Great Lakes shared by the United States and Canada, and both countries have called it that for generations.

This isn't the first time Google has reshaped its maps to match a political directive. When President Trump renamed the Gulf of Mexico the "Gulf of America" in 2025, Google split its results the same way. A map is supposed to be a neutral reference, not a tool that changes its facts depending on who holds office or which side of a trade dispute a country is on. Google, led by CEO Sundar Pichai, can reverse this decision and keep "Lake Ontario" as the name shown to everyone, everywhere, regardless of politics.

Sign the petition to tell Google to restore "Lake Ontario" on its maps, before political pressure gets to decide what counts as true for everyone who relies on it.