The United States on Tuesday accused Western European countries of backsliding on human rights over internet restrictions, in a shortened annual global report that omitted criticism of allies of President Donald Trump, including El Salvador.
The State Department's congressionally required report historically has offered extensive accounts of all nations' records, documenting in dispassionate detail issues from unjust detention to extrajudicial killing to personal freedoms.
For the first report under Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the State Department trimmed sections and took particular aim at countries that have been in the crosshairs of Trump, including Brazil and South Africa.
On China, which the United States across administrations has identified as a top adversary, the State Department report said that "genocide" was ongoing against the mostly Muslim Uyghur people, whose plight Rubio took up as a senator.
But the report also took striking aim at some of the closest allies of the United States, saying that human rights had worsened in Britain, France and Germany due to regulations on online hate speech.
