Telegram messenger app used by Islamic State for promotion, recruitment; find out how the creator responded here

The major platforms of social media, like Twitter, have stepped up their actions toward ensuring that they won't be used by the terror groups in their vicious motives. The Islamic State, however, seems to have found another way to channel their campaign to promote their ideologies and entice people to join their cause.

According to a Reuters report, Telegram, a free cloud-based mobile and desktop messaging app, has been the go-to platform by the Islamic State for promotional and recruitment purposes.

This messaging app was launched two years ago back in 2013 and has since garnered 60 million active users. The developers of the app pride themselves with what they claim as a messaging app with a focus on security and speed, and where users can share photos, videos and files of any type, apart from sending messages to a person or a group.

One feature, though, that might have caught the interest of the Islamic State in using the messaging app is that it allows people to create super secured channels for broadcasting to unlimited audiences.

According to security researchers, the terror group has utilized Telegram to broadcast news and share videos of military victories or sermons. They claimed responsibility over the recent Paris attacks and the downing of the Russian airliner over Egypt, where more than 350 lives were lost, with the use of Telegram.

Alex Kassirer, a counter-terrorism analyst with the New York-based private intelligence firm Flashpoint, said that the Telegram broadcast channels were used by the IS to send releases in order to inspire and motivate, while according to Rita Katz, director of SITE Intelligence Group (a Bethesda, Maryland-based extremist monitoring service), there are now three to four dozen channels used to attract tens of thousands of followers.

In response to such reports, Telegram released a statement via a post on their site that they have now blocked 78 ISIS-related channels that the terrorist group used to spread propaganda and communicate with other members, Business Insider reported.

"We were disturbed to learn that Telegram's public channels were being used by ISIS to spread their propaganda. We are carefully reviewing all reports sent to us at abuse@telegram.org and are taking appropriate action to block such channels," the statement said.

"As a result, this week alone we blocked 78 ISIS-related channels across 12 languages. We are also introducing an easier way for our users to report objectionable public content in the upcoming update of Telegram this week."