That is what has Thai authorities so upset. I don't blame them. They are trying to attract tourists, but the last thing they need is to attract the wrong kind. Also, they are always concerned about their image.
I think their mistake was unleashing a brouhaha about it. If they had simply ignored it, I believe it would have died a natural death without very many people ever having been aware of it.
I think they made a similar mistake by the recent arrest of the Chinese girl who live streamed a staged video claiming that Bangkok's Soi Nana area is unsafe for single women. Of course, that is totally false, but again how many people would have seen it if there was never a lot of publicity about it, let alone an arrest?
Thailand certainly cannot condone "fake news" negative reports, but I think the way they are handling it is resulting in more harm than good. When these things do happen, they can either ignore it or make a lot of noise about it. I can't think of any other alternatives, and neither of these choices are good. In my opinion it is a lesser of two evils choice as to how to react.