I have also seen many times a university happy to throw a student or even a faculty member under the bus, and in this case it seems extremely clear that they were running an unethical sociological experiment that was probably not reviewed by the IRB there. That's grounds for the university very rapidly turning on you.

Violating IRB ethics is a very serious issue, and has timelines in place once a complaint is filed. I expect that this statement was intended to be fast, short, and direct because of the time sensitivity.