Fact-Check: False Claim That Google Maps Has Removed Palestine Goes Viral!

Google Maps never had a Palestine tag, instead it showed the West Bank and Gaza strip.

Fact-Check: Google did not have a specific pin for Palestine. 

(Source: The Quint) 

Several social media posts have claimed that Palestine has been 'removed' from the maps application of Google, while sharing a photo of the region, which shows Israel but not Palestine.

An archive of the post can be found here. 

(Source: X/Screenshot) 

This post recorded 253.8K views at the time of writing this story. (Archives of similar claims can be found here and here.)

Is this true?: No, the claim is false as Google Maps never distinctly labelled Palestine on its platform.

• Google clarified the same via email to The Quint, saying that they had not made changes to the depiction of Palestine on Google Maps.

How did we find out?: Team WebQoof searched for Palestine on Google Maps and found the tags for the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Here are the pins for the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

(Source: Google Maps/Screenshot) 

To see whether they had a specific tag earlier, we looked for news reports or posts which mentioned the same.

However, a piece by The Guardian from 2016 reported that Google never had a specific pin for Palestine.

The claim has been on the internet for a long time.

(Source: The Guardian/Screenshot)

Why does Google not label Palestine?: To understand why this was the case, The Quint reached out to Google over email, where a spokesperson responded with a clarification.

• They stated that Google Maps has not altered how Palestine is represented on their platform.

• The company explained that due to the absence of a unified agreement among global authorities regarding the territorial boundaries of Palestine, they are unable to accurately outline and tag its borders on Google Maps.

• Nonetheless, when users look up Palestine on Maps, they would be guided to the area with the West Bank and Gaza Strip labels.

Conclusion: Social media users have falsely claimed that Palestine has been 'removed' from Google Maps.

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