YACHT, the Los Angeles-based electro duo of Jona Bechtolt and Claire L. Evans, have faced a 48-hour firestorm of criticism after their claim that a private sex tape they made went public without their consent was discovered to be a hoax. Now, publicity firm Motormouth Media, which represented the band on their most recent album, the presciently titled I Thought the Future Would Be Cooler, says they had nothing to do with it.

"It's time to state this. We are not involved in the Yacht situation in any way the idea was devised and executed 100 percent without us," read a tweet on May 10 from the account of Motormouth Judy, a.k.a. the Motormouth Media's founder and principal Judy Miller. Subsequent tweets explained why: "I did not want to say anything at all, but our friends and media are all asking. we did write the band expressing our concern."

Yacht's Sex Tape Was a Hoax

Not heeding that advice apparently led to an explosive backlash yesterday from all corners of the music and media worlds which lambasted YACHT's false cry of "revenge porn" as ultimately belittling and degrading to real victims.

"This is one of the grossest publicity stunts I’ve ever seen," wrote an incensed Anna Merlan of Jezebel, who penned both an initial story on the supposed sex tape's airing and a later one uncovering the hoax. "The thing about revenge porn," Merlan said, "the real kind, not the desperate fake kind cooked up to attract extra attention to your mediocre art band -- is that it ruins lives."

While YACHT declined to speak with Billboard, the band has since issued two apologies: One which many criticized for failing to acknowledge victims of "revenge porn," and another one in which the band said it finally understood why everyone was so upset. "We understand that positioning it that way from the beginning was an egregious mistake, and are so ashamed we hadn’t considered this beforehand," they wrote on Facebook. "Yes, this was all a 'hoax' or 'PR stunt.'... It was never its intention to mock or make light of anyone who has been a victim of a privacy violation like the one we mentioned."

YACHT Takes Aim at the World's Ills With 'I Thought The Future Would Be Cooler': Exclusive Song Premiere

The second apology acknowledged that the first one wasn't entirely heartfelt. "We’re sorry for our shitty non-apology yesterday, too. There’s no justifying it. We clearly didn’t get it then. We get it now."

YACHT has pulled more benign media stunts in the past. The promotion cycle for its latest album included drones, GPS coordinates, fax machines and more.

The band has since deleted its initial Facebook post claiming a sex tape had been stolen.