U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday announced further efforts to protect against human rights abuses by the Syrian and Iranian governments.

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As part of his efforts, President Obama stated that those involved in the government of Iran or Syria’s human rights abuses as “facilitated by computer and network disruption, monitoring, and tracking” are threatening the United States’ foreign policy.

“The Governments of Iran and Syria are endeavoring to rapidly upgrade their technological ability to conduct such activities,” the president said in a statement.

Knowing of the importance of technology, in order for the “Iranian and Syrian people to freely communicate with each other and the outside world, as well as the preservation, to the extent possible, of global telecommunications supply chains for essential products and services to enable the free flow of information, the measures in this order are designed primarily to address the need to prevent entities located in whole or in part in Iran and Syria from facilitating or committing serious human rights abuses.”