NYU Says White Student Union Facebook Page is a Hoax

A Facebook page for a supposed New York University student group used by members of “European descent” to “celebrate whiteness” was a hoax according to school officials.

The “NYU White Student Union” page launched Friday to the chagrin of students, many of whom offered their criticism on social media. NYU denounced the page on Monday.

“There is no such organization as this at NYU, the Facebook page is using NYU’s logo illegally and without permission, and we have contacted Facebook to demand the NYU logo be removed,” NYU Director of Public Affairs Matt Nagel said in a statement to the New York Daily News. “We reject — and we call on others to reject — efforts such as this to derail or distort candid, thoughtful discourse on race.”

The Facebook group sprung up during a time when racial tensions have been at a high on college campuses after recent incidents at the University of Missouri and Yale. The NYU group follows an uptick in white student pages making an appearance at schools such as Mizzou, UCLA and University of California-Berkeley.

The New York Daily News reports that users on the prankster imageboard 4chan may have been responsible for the faux student groups. An anonymous post on the site Sunday called for users to create “European students union” pages for “the most leftist colleges and universities in the western world.”