The White House released a joint statement Friday announcing a partnership with Australia, Denmark, and Norway to try to curb the use of technologies by authoritarian governments that use the products for repression and surveillance.

The partnership is named the Export Controls and Human Rights Initiative. The governments of Australia, Denmark, and Norway signed the statement released by the White House Friday, and Canada, France, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom have expressed support of the initiative. The partnership calls for the alignment of policies on exports of technologies among participating countries.  

The White House explained that the group formed in order to address “the misuse of certain dual-use technologies that can lead to human rights abuses.”They claim there is a rise of “digital authoritarianism” in countries like China and Russia. Dissidents and journalists are being tracked through the use of software and advanced surveillance technologies. These technologies are also being used to shape public opinion and censor information that the government deems dangerous.

The countries assert in the joint statement that “Over the coming year of action, we commit to working to establish a voluntary, nonbinding written code of conduct around which like-minded states could politically pledge, to use export control tools to prevent the proliferation of software and other technologies used to enable serious human rights abuses.”

The joint statement was released on the last day of President Joe Biden’s Summit for Democracy, which was a virtual gathering of officials from over 100 countries aimed to bolster democracies. Russia and China were not on the summit invitation list.

In response to the snub, China launched a media campaign to undermine US criticisms about their democracy. The Chinese government published a 30-page report praising their own democracy and a partner release from the Foreign Ministry questioning the US system of allowing money to influence politics.