A Stanford junior and several other individuals have been falsely depicted, by a fake news release as leaders of a campaign to boycott Iran and other Middle Eastern nations.

Josh Schott ’14, co-president of Students for Palestinian Equal Rights, is quoted by the news release– nominally released by a non-existent boycott campaign– as advocating for Israeli military intervention in Iran and Syria. The news release also identified a number of activists and organizations previously critical of Israel as supposedly supportive of the boycott campaign.

The release has since been reprinted and characterized as accurate by several sources, among them the Palestinian News Network.

Schott told The Chronicle of Higher Education that the potential for the release’s broad dissemination had concerned him.

“I don’t want people thinking I actually said or did those things,” Schott emphasized.