Fact Check

Is Google Maps Voting on Whether to Identify Israel or Palestine?

Unsurprisingly, the voting site does not appear to be affiliated with Google.

Published Aug 3, 2014

Updated May 20, 2021
 (Google)
Image Via Google
Claim:
Google Earth is conducting a vote over whether to identify Israel or Palestine on its maps.

We first collected this email hoax back in August 2014:

Is this true or hoax?

THIS IS A MUST DO MESSAGE - IMMEDIATELY!
Please share -
Google launches a vote to name Israel or Palestine on its map in Google Earth. So far 72% voted in favour of Israel. Please send it to each list you have to vote for PALESTINE.

All you have to do is click on the link below and then select the PALESTINIAN FLAG ...

https://www.israel-vs-palestine.com/

Thanks for your support

PLEASE SHARE WITH OTHER IMMEDIATELY 🙏🙏🙏

This just take seconds please vote
JAZAKALLAH KHAIR

This appeal to vote for whether Google Earth should identify Israel or Palestine on its maps of the Middle East hit the Internet in mid-2014 amidst armed conflict between Israeli forces and Hamas militants. There was nothing to it: Google doesn't choose how to identify the national entities shown on its maps by popular vote, and Google Earth recognizes both Israel and Palestine as geopolitical entities to users who search on either of those terms. The only purpose this putative "vote" serves is to drive traffic to the named (non-Google affiliated) site.

Sources

LaBrot, Amanda.   "US Marine Searches for Shirts from Operations Around the World."     KOMU-TV.   6 July 2014.

Updates

Update [20 May 2021]: This article has been reformatted.

David Mikkelson founded the site now known as snopes.com back in 1994.

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