The Trump Tower in New York, which currently serves as Donald Trump's residence in New York has just been renamed "Dump Tower" on Google Maps. The tech company has reportedly moved to fix the label immediately last Sunday, so it's now back to its old label.
Dump Tower
The renaming is said to have been perpetrated last Nov. 26 around the time someone or the same person translated the building's name to its Russian Cyrillic equivalent. This last is purportedly an allusion to the president elect's alleged ties to Vladimir Putin. In the same day, the Trump International Hotel & Tower located in Columbus Circle also got the Dump treatment.
The Associated Press was able to secure a statement from a Google spokeswoman who said that the name has been reverted along with the claim that inaccuracies can happen.
Editing Google Maps
To provide some context, Google allows the general public to add entries or make changes to Maps such as the naming or renaming of roads and, as was the case with Trump Tower, buildings and establishments.
This feature, however, has been eliminated recently when Google disabled Map Maker to avoid trolling or pranks. It seems that the enterprising prankster was able to find a workaround after his successful modification.
Moderated Changes
It is important to note, however, that when a Maps user makes an alteration, the change is still reviewed and approved by moderators.
"Changes suggested on Google Map Maker need to be reviewed before they become part of the data on Google Maps," Google Maps FAQ section stated, addressing the query about spamming and abuse.
Aside from the general public, Google seems to be employing a team of "trusted reviewers" to approve the changes.
Other Google Maps Pranks
To be fair, there must be a huge amount of changes happening, making it difficult for reviewers to spot all errors. There are several examples that can demonstrate this such as how the White House was renamed "Edward Snow Den." Another prankster also painted a new park into a figure similar to an Android urinating on the Apple logo.
It is also important to remember that the entirety of the data in Google Maps comes from different sources, which include third-party providers, public sources and user contributions. Errors are, therefore, bound to happen and Google has been quick in fixing them so far especially when members of the general public have spotted a mistake.
Trump's camp has not commented on the snafu so far.
