Maps are about territory. And in history, cartography has often been (ab)used to political ends. Due to its big popularity and global visibility Google’s geo-products have attracted their share of border and naming debates and disputes over time and the change of a border’s status or the name of a proportion of land in, for example, Google Maps often has some reverberations.
One more such political statement has been made through (and by?) Google’s geo-products a few days ago: After the most recent events in Libya, the name of the Green Square in downtown Tripoli has quickly been changed back to Martyr’s Square (the name it had before Moammar Gadhafi took power). According to AP, the change was made by a user on Sunday and ‘only’ accepted by El Goog shortly after.
(via AP)
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