MOSCOW, March 3 (RAPSI) – A request have been filed with Russian Prosecutor General’s Office and communications regulator Roskomnadzor seeking probe into Telegram instant messenger service that has allegedly become a promotional tool for extremists, Izvestia newspaper reported on Thursday.

The request was filed by Maxim Grigoryev, Director of the Fund on Research of Democracy Problems, and Kirill Grinchenko, coordinator of Mediagvardia, a project run by the pro-government youth movement Young Guard (Molodaia Gvardia).

Extremists use the Telegram service to share and promote their views, distribute manuals for preparing explosives, the newspaper quoted Grigoryev as having said.

Earlier, State Duma lawmaker Alexander Ageyev asked Alexander Bortnikov, director of the Federal Security Service (FSB), to consider the possibility of restricting access to Telegram if it is confirmed that the messaging service is used by Islamic State, a terrorist organization banned in Russia.

Telegram messenger designed by Pavel  Durov, the founder of Russia’s largest social network VKontakte, has been available in AppStore since August 2013, with Android version coming out in September 2013. As of March 2014, VKontakte estimated that it had 35 million active users.

Telegram has so far blocked more than 600 broadcast channels run by terrorists, according to Durov.