Scarborough Shoal is now the name people will see on Google Maps with reference to the disputed area in the South China Sea as Google alters its maps after receiving objections from people living in the Philippines. A petition posted on Change.org and signed by almost 2,000 people, stated that Google Maps is showing that the reef is part of the Zhongsha island chain and is giving credence to a territory grab, according to Change.org.
"We made the fix in line with our long-standing global policy on depicting disputed regions in a way that does not endorse or affirm the position taken by any side," a Google spokesperson said, according to CNN News.
But Chinese Internet users have immediately showed their response in a Weibo update. Weibo is China's equivalent to Twitter. "My patriotic fellow countrymen, please check your phones and computers and uninstall the Google products, kicking Google out of China," stated by one Weibo user, as reported by CNN.
A stand-off in Scarborough Shoal took place between China and Philippines in 2012 when vessels from both countries refused to leave for weeks.
"We understand that geographic names can raise deep emotions which is why we worked quickly once this was brought to our attention," said Google representative in an email, according to BBC.
Calling the reef Huangyan Island, China is basing its claim on its "nine dash line," a historical demarcation decreeing that almost entire China Sea is Chinese territory. But the Philippines refer to the reef as Panatag Shoal and have already launched a case in the Permanent Court of Attribution in The Hague to prove that under the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, Scarborough Shoal is part of its exclusive economic zone and that China's "nine dash line" is incompatible with UNCLOS, according to the Telegraph.
