This is it exactly. She's applying a standard of academic rigor to Google and they can either accept it or not. If they want to filter what kind of research they publish, then they have to admit to themselves (and their employees) that they baking pro-Google bias into their work and it need not be taken too seriously by academics. Maybe that kind of bias is irrelevant when you're publishing algorithm or mathematical work where bias is less inherent, but if you have an AI Ethics team you should be prepared for some controversy. And they clearly weren't and panicked.