It could still be miscommunication. It is quite plausibly that she did not have any previous papers fail internal review, and almost certain that she did not have any fail internal review while already submitted to a conference (and thus "published" in Google's POV).

Not understanding Google's policy of retract it now, possibly re-"publish" (resubmit) later after addressing Google's concerns, could very well escalate things, especially since it sounds like this all occurred right as a bunch of people were taking vacation, so ability to get answers to questions/concerns was likely greatly hampered.