I don't think it really matters whether it's legally recognized. If it's how people keep time in that part of the world then tzdata would not be accurately reporting the timekeeping practices there if it doesn't reflect this change.

I guess the main question is whether the people there are actually following this declaration.

On November 13, 2018 1:13:15 PM UTC, D Nathan Cookson <dorzak@gmail.com> wrote:
The other question is does the local government have the authority or is this another situation like Little Diomede, Alaska.  

There are many cultural and political issues  around time zones in Alaska. I believe to be legally recognized the DoT has to sign off on it. 

https://alaskahistoricalsociety.org/discover-alaska/glimpses-of-the-past/keeping-time-in-alaska/

Sent from my iPhone

On Nov 12, 2018, at 5:00 PM, Paul Eggert <eggert@cs.ucla.edu> wrote:

Deborah Goldsmith wrote:
Given that it’s in the past, do we really want to wait till people start complaining?

That's what we've done in the past, as I recall, for low-population locations. It's the usual cost-benefit tradeoff.