The secure messaging app Telegram, which allows groups of up to 200 to chat and coordinate their activities, announced on Wednesday that it had closed 78 public channels used by Islamic State militants or supporters in 12 languages.

The company, which boasts that private messages “are heavily encrypted and can self-destruct,” encourages users to report any use of publicly available channels for illegal activities. The closed channels had been used to disseminate propaganda for the group, including statements on attacks and video of its activities.

“We were disturbed to learn that Telegram’s public channels were being used by ISIS to spread their propaganda,” the company said in a statement published in full by Business Insider.

The statement caused some confusion, since the company’s founder, Pavel Durov, admitted during an interview at TechCrunch Disrupt in September that he was well aware that the Islamic State used the platform.

Asked if he slept well at night knowing that the militants used his service to communicate, Mr. Durov said then, “I think that privacy, ultimately, and our right for privacy is more important than our fear of bad things happening, like terrorism.”

As Buzzfeed reported, Mr. Durov, who previously created Russia’s popular Facebook alternative, VKontakte, openly mocked the idea of blocking the militants just two days ago, writing that officials might as well ban words, since there is “evidence that they’re being used by terrorists to communicate.”

Mr. Durov, who is often called Russia’s Mark Zuckerberg, fled Russia last year after a SWAT team appeared at his door in St. Petersburg. Since then, he has been something of a nomad, but he made plain his attachment to Paris, at least the physical place, in an image posted on his Instagram account on Tuesday.

The photograph, of a brooding Mr. Durov on a balcony in front of the Eiffel Tower, was accompanied by something of a screed against the French government, which he blamed for provoking the attacks, and in particular the officials who run Paris.

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“I think the French government is as responsible as ISIS for this, because it is their policies and carelessness which eventually led to the tragedy,” Mr. Durov wrote in his long caption. “They take money away from hardworking people of France with outrageously high taxes and spend them on waging useless wars in the Middle East and on creating parasitic social paradise for North African immigrants.”

“It is a disgrace to see Paris in the hands of shortsighted socialists who ruin this beautiful place,” he added.

UPDATE: After this post was originally published, Mr. Durov responded on Twitter to what he suggested was an unfair characterization of his previous remarks. He said that although he was aware in September that Islamic State militants were using Telegram to exchange private messages, it was not until this week that the company discovered that the group was using its public channels to disseminate propaganda.

“My statement re privacy,” at TechCrunch disrupt, he said, “was made before we even launched the channels feature — a feature that has little to do with privacy.”

“I never mocked the idea of blocking ISIS channels,” he added, “I mocked the proposal to ban encrypted private messaging due to terrorism.”

Telegram launched its channels feature on Sept. 22, one day after his TechCrunch interview.