"It is a cruel irony that Google attempted to justify firing me by claiming that my social networking posts showed bias against my harassers," Chevalier said via a prepared statement. His suit claims that he was singled out for frittering away too much of his day on social activism and for referring to Damore's memo as misogynistic, among other reasons.

For its part, Google said that "lively debate" was an important pillar of company culture, and that the "overwhelming majority" of employees adhere to its communications guidelines. "But when an employee does not, it is something we must take seriously. We always make our decisions without any regard to the employee's political views."