In most common law jurisdictions there are two branches of law, very approximately the differences are: Criminal law, crimes like murder, rape, theft in breach

In most common law jurisdictions there are two branches of law, very approximately the differences are: Criminal law, crimes like murder, rape, theft in breach of rules enforced by the state against all citizens, judgements result in punishments up to death, prison etc; Civil law, unlawful acts like breach of contract, libel, negligence etc, rules are enforced by the courts at the request of one citizen against another, judgements result in nothing worse than financial recompense. Typically jurisdictions treat defamation and libel as a civil matter not a criminal matter. In civil law, in the UK at least, you need to prove damages against a 'legal person' i.e. a person or a company to be able to win a court judgement against the defendant. Hence most fake news cannot be fought in the courts as it is too hard to prove that it has directly caused damages to any one person. This is why you often see tabloid news stories about vaguely defined groups and hardly ever about a specific person or manufacturer. Stories about a specific person are much more expensive to produce because you have to be sure you have solid enough evidence to win a libel case, whereas if you make stuff up about a poorly defined group, e.g. 'migrants' there is no come back so it's a much cheaper way to wind up your readers and get more emotional engagement.