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Trump Tower renamed ‘Dump Tower’ on Google Maps for a few hours – Metro US

Trump Tower renamed ‘Dump Tower’ on Google Maps for a few hours

Trump Tower renamed ‘Dump Tower’ on Google Maps for a few hours
Creative Commons/Jim Peake

What a dump!

A vandal gave an unofficial review of the president-elect’s main New York residence and Trump Organization headquarters by renaming Trump Tower as “Dump Tower” on Google Maps for a few hours on Saturday.

The FifthAvenue high rise has been attracting protestors and vitriol since the election, but the incident Saturday would be the first known case of “cyber vandalism” directed at the gilded building. Previous instances of Google Maps tampering include the renaming of the White House to the “Edward Snow Den.”

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The vandalism was not technically a hacking incident because Google Maps has crowd-sourcing functionality that allows users to submit information about roads, businesses and other locales. Yet according to the Google Maps FAQ, user-submitted changes are vetted by moderators, leaving the question open as to whether the culprit managed to bypass the supervision or if someone from Google let it slide.

It’s not clear if it was the same or a different offender who also translated the name into Russian Cyrillic on a different map view, perhaps meant as a reference to reports of Russian partiality for Donald Trump.

A Google spokesperson told The Associated Press that it caught the prank and changed it back to Trump Tower on Sunday.