A California law has extended libel protections to online publications. An appeals court decided in 2014 that rules on retraction of alleged libel did not apply to online publications since a 1931 law defined newspapers as publications printed on cheap paper. (Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, October 30, 2015, by Jennevieve Fong)
Under libel law, defendants who promptly issue a retraction can only be sued for libel damages rather than for ruinous general and punitive damages. But in Thieriot v. The Wrapnews Inc., the court ruled that The Wrap had no protection in that regard. (The Washington Post, September 30, 2015, by Eugene Volokh)