Google / Battleland Graphics Laboratory
The sanctions the rest of the world is imposing against Iran apparently are beginning to bite. The latest evidence: Tehran’s complaint that Google Maps recently stopped labeling the Persian Gulf the Persian Gulf. But the search-engine giant isn’t changing its name to the Arabian Gulf, like Arab states – and the U.S. Navy – do. Instead, it’s simply unlabeled when you summon it up on the popular Google Maps website.
“Google fabricating lies…will not have any outcome but for its users to lose trust in the data the company provides,” Iranian Deputy Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Bahman Dorri told the Islamic Republic News Agency. A Google rep has told the BCC that the company doesn’t label every body of water in the world (although the Gulf of Oman, due east of the Gulf With No Name, is labeled on Google Maps). Given the stupidity of that answer, it’s not a surprise the spokesman, like the gulf, went nameless in the BBC report.