A/HRC/42/58 discriminatory grounds listed in Article 21 of the Charter and to cover ‘video sharing platforms’. A set of operational measures to be taken by companies and Member States, was set out in the 2018 Recommendation on measures to tackle effectively illegal content online. Furthermore, a number of key actions were put forward and are being implemented with regard to media literacy and critical thinking. 44. Also at the 4th meeting Mr. Ernest Chernukhin, Chief of Section, Department for New Challenges and Threats of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation gave a presentation entitled “Countering the use of information and communication technologies for criminal purposes”. He noted that twenty years since the inclusion of the issue of information security into the global agenda, the issue of combating unlawful use of information and communications technologies (ICT), in terms of its scale and coverage, has become a real threat for both developing and developed countries. He emphasized the tendency to conflate terrorism and cyber-criminality and pointed out that social media, communication applications and other internet channels are actively used by terrorists for recruiting, fund raising and organisational coordination of terrorists attacks through the establishment of communication channels and real-time control of the actions carried out by terrorists or individuals. 45. In the coming years, cyberattacks and cybercrimes both on state and commercial networks will be organised with the assistance of robotics and smart attacking instruments according to Mr. Chernukhin. Both software and hardware will make it possible to scale up the level of attacks significantly. He underlined that in the absence of a genuine political legal discussion within the United Nations in the quest for a resolution of this problem, it has not been currently possible to work out a universal approach to combat this global phenomenon. He noted that this is something that works to the benefit of the cybercriminals, who have for some time felt to be impervious online. 46. Mr. Chernukhin stated that the Russian Federation believes that there is a need to strengthen the international cooperation and harmonize the national legislations of States in this sphere. He added that at the international level, the situation is complicated not only by the absence of the fully-fledged international legal basis, but also by the lack of a single conception framework. He underlined that even with the existing bilateral mechanisms of partnership it is not possible to say that there is a panacea for the problem of cybercrime. Since even with these bilateral agreements, States may refrain from providing the necessary information, citing specificities of national legislation in terms of cross border information exchange or simply by replying with a delay. It can also be the case that information exchange is not possible because of real technical reasons, for example, in case of expiry term of the IT data retention under the national law. 47. The Russian Federation together with a group of like-minded States favours the development of universal principles and standards which should be shared by all interested parties and which would establish the basis for effective and transparent international cooperation in combating this threat. Such an instrument could take the form of a United Nations convention on countering crime in information and communications technologies use, which would take into account the current situation, faced by all countries without exception and would be based on principles of sovereign equality of States, noninterference in the internal affairs of States and respect for human rights. 48. Mr. Chernukhin underlined that in this connection the Russian Federation considers it has made an intellectual contribution to these discussions by introducing the draft universal convention on cooperation in combating cybercrime on the 28 December 2017, which became an official document of the 72nd session of the United Nations General Assembly. The idea behind the preparation of the universal convention is also reflected in the outcome declaration of the 10th BRICS summit in Johannesburg on 25–27 July 2018. The five leaders underscored in particular the importance of international cooperation in combating the use of ICT for terrorist and criminal purposes and in consequences of this, once again affirmed the need for the preparation under the auspices of the United Nations of a universal legally binding regulatory document countering the use of information and communications technologies in criminal purposes. Mr. Chernukhin also reminded that at 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly the project of the Russian Federation resolution A/RES/73/187 “Countering the use of information and communications 26