Google may have disabled Map Maker earlier this year to stop the public at large from trolling Google Maps, but apparently, where there’s a will, there’s a way. On Saturday, November 26, someone succeeded in changing the name of Trump Tower to “Dump Tower” on Google Maps, because trolls will always be trolls.
At some point yesterday, Donald Trump’s Fifth Avenue home was given a rather unceremonious rechristening, and a search for “Trump Tower” revealed a pin for “Dump Tower” instead. It was rather tricky to find for some, and required zooming in on the building itself at just the right angle (which is perhaps how the culprit got away with the stunt in the first place). At a separate angle, someone else (or perhaps the same person) transliterated the skyscraper’s name in Russian Cyrillic, perhaps meant to be a jab at Trump’s alleged ties to President Vladimir Putin and company.
Of course, the vigilant Google Maps team soon corrected the spelling to its original version, and on Saturday evening a Google spokesperson told New York’s PIX11, “Some inappropriate names were surfacing in Google Maps that should not be, and we apologize for any offense this may have caused. Our teams immediately took action and have fixed the issue.”
While the team managed to put out this first fire, another quickly arose to take its place (as is often the case on the internet), and later in the day on Saturday, Trump International Hotel & Tower in Columbus Circle was renamed Dump International Hotel & Tower.
Surprisingly enough, Donald Trump himself did not address the issue himself via Twitter, as he is known to do … not yet, at least.
It is still unclear who was behind the name-changing prank, though some believe that it was an inside job, perpetrated by an employee of Google. We’ll keep you posted on any new developments in the story.
