A California internet service provider ceded to the demands of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and has removed from the internet a spoofed press release set up by the culture jamming collective the Yes Men. The release falsely announced the Chamber now supports legislation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

A wide variety of mainstream news outlets picked up Monday’s hoax announcement, which was followed by a staged press conference at the National Press Club featuring a Yes Men member posing as a spokesman for the Chamber of Commerce. The press conference was interrupted when an actual chamber spokesman burst into the room and confronted his tree-hugging doppelganger.

Though the Yes Men have come clean on the hoax, the Chamber of Commerce was evidently unhappy that the fake press release was still out there, sitting on a website modeled on the chamber’s own site. Citing copyright claims, the chamber demanded that ISP Hurricane Electric of Fremont, California, remove the page. The ISP took it down late Thursday, but as of Friday afternoon, the press release was being hosted by hosting.com.

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http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/10/fake-pressrelease-flap/