Telegram, the secret-chat messaging app reportedly used by ISIS to communicate, has shut down 78 channels related to the terrorist group.
Last month, before the attacks on Paris, the Middle East Media Research Institute released a report claiming that ISIS and other terrorist organizations were sharing information including "tutorials on manufacturing weapons and launching cyberattacks" and "calls for targeted killing and lone-wolf attacks" via the app.
Telegram lets users broadcast encrypted messages to groups of up to 200 people. On Tuesday, the company announced that it had blocked "78 ISIS-related channels across 12 languages."
"We were disturbed to learn that Telegram's public channels were being used by ISIS to spread their propaganda," the company wrote, adding that it was "introducing an easier way for our users to report objectionable content in the upcoming update of Telegram this week."
Related: Paris Attack Could Renew Debate Over Encrypted Messaging Apps
One of Telegram's founders, Pavel Durov, is known as the "Russian Mark Zuckerberg" for starting the social network VKontakte, often called VK. A critic of the Russian government, Durov founded Telegram in Berlin with his brother Nikolai.
Pavel told TechCrunch that he wanted to create a form of communication that "can't be accessed by the Russian security agencies." In September, Pavel claimed the app was used to send 12 billion messages day, an increase from the 2 billion sent in May.
