My colloquial understanding is that resign is when you end it and fired is when they do. In this situation it seems half and half, which may be why the differen

My colloquial understanding is that resign is when you end it and fired is when they do. In this situation it seems half and half, which may be why the difference between the terms doesn't matter to much to me. Using your definition, yes, it seems clear this was a firing, but again, so what? Does a disagreement on terms really necessitate the drama (news articles, petition, protests)? If she was being denied money somehow because of the distinction then I could see it being a legal case, but I haven't heard anything like that. Google said she resigned, she said she didn't, okay. If anything, saying she resigned sounds a bit nicer to me than saying she was fired. Probably best if Google had not commented on it at all.