I know, today was supposed to be Facebook’s special moment, but when a sovereign state threatens to sue a corporation like Google, it’s sort of a thing. Especially when a sovereign state sues a corporation because of a disagreement over how a map should be labelled. Seriously.

See, there’s some hoo-ha over what the right naming convention is for that body of water variously known as the Arabian Gulf, Islamic Gulf, Arabo-Persian Gulf, and plain old Persian Gulf. So whoever it is that gets to decide what to call bodies of water in Google Maps decided to play it safe and leave that particular space nameless.

Which Iran is threatening to sue them for. Because they really want people to call it the Persian Gulf. Seriously, they’ve threatened to forbid airlines from using Iranian airspace unless they exclusively refer to the gulf as Persian.

And unless Google starts re-labeling pronto,  they’re liable to see legal action from Iran – said the AP:

Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast says that if Google does not restore the name of the Persian Gulf, it will face “serious damages.”

Mehmanparast told the semiofficial Mehr news agency Thursday that Tehran has already warned Google of possible legal action.

I mean what legal action could actually be expected remains to be seen, but hey.

[Source: AP]