Palestine Was Never Labeled on Google Maps
The Claim
Google and Apple deleted ‘Palestine’ from their map apps and replaced it with Israel.
News posted on
Emerging story
Social media users and news websites claimed that Google Maps and Apple Maps removed ‘Palestine’ from their worldwide maps.
The claim was shared with a map that does not show ‘Palestine’ shown in the tweets below. The claim was circulating in Arabic, English, and Spanish.
Misbar’s Analysis
MENA: Apple and Google have been accused of deleting Palestine from their online maps, despite it never being labeled in the first place. Searching for Palestine on Apple Maps and Google Maps shows an outline for the Gaza Strip and West Bank territories, but no labels for Palestine.
An online petition since March 2016 has been collecting signatures to demand Google to include Palestine in Google Maps. The petition collected thousands of signatures.
The USA Today reported Google told it doesn't label the borders because there isn't an international consensus on where the Palestinian borders are located. Google said it displays any disputed borders as a dashed gray line, and it includes labels and dashed lines for the Gaza Strip and West Bank on its maps.
The truth is Google did not remove the Palestine label because the label was never there.
Though Google never used (and therefore never removed) the ‘Palestine’ label, many social media users and mainstream news sites believed it did. The claim has been circulating since 2016. When searching for Palestine on Google Maps, it shows an outline, but with no label for Palestine and Israel labeled alongside it.
