A cartographic rebellion — users are massively downloading the app that refused to rename Lake Ontario
Kyiv • UNN
MapQuest kept the name Lake Ontario despite Trump's executive order. After that, 80,000 people downloaded the app, and its usage grew 50-fold.
Users are massively downloading the app that refused to rename Lake Ontario as "Lake America" by order of U.S. President Donald Trump, reports UNN, citing Bild.
Details
Due to the customs conflict with Canada, U.S. President Donald Trump renamed Lake Ontario "Lake America" by executive order. The Canadian city of Toronto, with a population of over one million, is located on its shores, and many of its residents mocked this vengeful move by the American president as a genuine farce. However, U.S. digital services — Google, followed by Apple — evidently did not want problems with the White House and renamed the lake. But one company refused: MapQuest, a former pioneer of digital mapping, still labels the lake as "Lake Ontario".
Behind this rebellion is a tech boss who apparently is not afraid of confrontation with Trump: Michael Blend, head of MapQuest's parent company, System1. He does not hide the fact that he supports the Democrats. Blend donated $5,000 to former Vice President Kamala Harris when she ran against Trump. MapQuest General Manager Doug Berger also made his position clear. On social media, he stated: "We will not change the name!" Trump is even being slightly provoked: the statement refers in capital letters to "Big Beautiful Map" — an allusion to Trump's former posts on Truth Social.
Notably, the cartographic rebels were rewarded — with numerous new customers: MapQuest is now far ahead of Apple and Google in terms of app downloads. 80,000 people downloaded it onto their smartphones within a few hours. Use of the app increased 50-fold, the company reported.
Trump signed an executive order renaming Lake Ontario Lake America27.08.26, 20:56 • 13858 views
The rebellion against Trump thus turned out to be a gold mine. In the 1990s, the mapping service was a leader, but today MapQuest is more of a dwarf, especially compared with the two billion monthly users of Google Maps. It seems Trump unintentionally made the service "great again" — even if only for a short time.