I’ve had similar arguments with people over the pronunciation of Linux, with one person saying it’s “Lie-nicks” because it’s named after “Linus”, but Linus himself has said he pronounces his own name differently depending on the language he’s speaking at the time, but Linux is always pronounced “Lynn-icks.”
At this point GIFs in their original form as .GIF files barely exist anymore. GIF basically just means "short clip". Why would the author get any say at all at that point?