BANGKOK — The Thai military junta is to send representatives to social media companies to ask them for access to chat rooms and groups that are deemed harmful to national security, reports said Friday.

Facebook, Twitter, Google and popular instant messaging application Line are companies which the junta plans to talk to, a representative from the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology told Matichon Newspaper. 

The junta is asking for cooperation from the companies in taking down posts that are "sensitive" in the current political situation as well as group chats which might contain information deemed vital in protecting the nation. 

On Thursday, a meeting in Bangkok the junta had organized to outline its concerns on social media ended prematurely as no social-networking company chose to attend, the Wall Street Journal reported. 

Akira Morikawa, the chief executive of Line, had earlier stated that the instant messaging company would never reveal users' chat records without a Japanese court order.

The army seized power last week after seven months of anti-government protests that led to violence and a political stalemate.

Rights groups have been quick to protest the junta's detention of key dissidents and its censorship of the media, something the army says is needed to calm political tensions. 

The junta has since made it illegal to criticize the junta or the military.

NAKHON RATCHASIMA — The hardline Redshirt activist known as 'Rambo Isaan' has vowed to quit politics "for life" following his release from six days of detention in a military camp.

"When I first became political, I came here to ask for Thao Suranaree's blessing, and I became an MP as I wished," Suphon Attawong said as he prayed to the shrine of Nakhon Ratchasima's local heroine this morning. "Today, I have decided to leave politics, so I came here again to tell her I want to quit."

Mr. Suphon is the co-founder of a grassroots Redshirt organisation, the National Volunteers for the Defence of Democracy (NVDD), which boasts over 10,000 members across the northern and northeastern provinces. The group held several combat training sessions this year to prepare members for resistance in the event of a military coup. 

The military summoned Mr. Suphon a day after deposing the Redshirt-allied government in a coup d’état on 22 May.

Since seizing power, the military has detained hundreds of politicians and political activists in an attempt to diffuse the country's political turmoil. So far, all detainees have been released after seven days or less on the condition that they will not participate in any political activities or leave the country without the army’s permission.

Mr. Suphon, who was released yesterday after six days in detention, said the military treated him well.

Mr. Suphon also said he was convinced by his military handlers that "there has been a radical division in the society,” which has convinced him to cease his involvement in politics and dissolve the NVDD.  

"I will resign from the Pheu Thai Party and suspend all political activities."  Mr. Suphon said. "If anyone uses my name to get involved in politics, the law enforcement officials should strictly pursue legal actions against them."

Mr. Suphon also said he will disown the nickname Rambo Isaan, asking  the public to refer to him as Mr. Suphon from now on. He said that he does not harbour any ill-will towards the coupmakers and hopes the head of the military junta, Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha, will swiftly bring peace back to the country and organise elections in a timely manner. 

In April, Mr. Suphon told a Khaosod correspondent, "if a coup takes place, we will summon all NVDD members to Bangkok in order to express our support of democracy … we are willing to lay down our lives in defence of an elected government." 

Today, Mr. Suphon said that he has not spoken to former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who is considered to de facto leader of the Redshirt movement, for a long time.

Before leaving Thao Suranaree Shrine, Mr Suphon posed for a friendly photograph with a soldier.

BANGKOK — The Thai military is stepping up efforts to control the narrative behind the coup it staged last week with propagandist videos and stern censorship of alternative accounts.

In a press conference this morning, deputy chief of staff Lt. Gen. Chatchalerm Chalermsukh told reporters that the coup was an effort to prevent Thailand from becoming “a failed state like Syria or Libya.”

He stressed that the military takeover was not driven by self-interest.

"We have nothing to gain from this coup," Lt. Gen. Chatchalerm said. "We are sacrificing ourselves for the nation. If we don't succeed, we will go to jail. Treason is punishable by death."

The military also interrupted all state-owned television broadcasts this morning to air a self-promoting video about how the military has already begun solving Thailand’s “deep-rooted problems.”

The video opened with a female narrator explaining that while Thais are free to choose their own political views, deepening ideological differences in recent years have polarized Thai society and led to violence.

“Democracy has failed to solve this problem” and it is clear that “elections will lead to losses,” the narrator said over footage of the rival protest groups that were camping out in Bangkok prior to the coup.

The military tried to step in to resolve the dispute, but the two sides "failed to reach any agreement, forcing the military take control of power," the narrator explained, followed by a clip of army chief and coup-leader Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha declaring the military takeover on national television.

Gen. Prayuth announced the coup d’état after talks with rival political factions failed to solve the country’s decade-long political crisis in two days.

The twenty minute video went on to praise Gen. Prayuth for his efforts to "swiftly solve" the country’s problems while refraining from invoking martial law’s harshest powers. Under martial law, the military is authorized to censor the media, search and detain people at will, and violate a number of other internationally-recognized human rights.

“We try our best to avoid violating human rights,” the video showed Gen. Prayuth saying in a press conference with foreign media. 

Since seizing power last Thursday, the military junta has drawn widespread criticism from Human Rights groups for cracking down on media freedom, banning public demonstrations, raiding homes without search warrants, and detaining hundreds of politicians and activists. 

“Military rule has thrown Thailand’s rights situation into a free fall,” said Human Right's Watch's Asia director Brad Adams. “The army is using draconian martial law powers to detain politicians, activists, and journalists, to censor media, and to ban all public gatherings. This rolling crackdown needs to come to an end immediately.”

The military's short film ended with shots of rice farmers receiving overdue payments for the paddies they sold to the government last year under its controversial rice-subsidy program.

The military announced earlier this week that it would distribute billions of baht to the more than 800,000 rice farmers that are still owed money from the rice scheme. The former government failed to pay farmers on time because of internal mismanagement and crippling anti-government protests that led to the dissolution of Parliament in December. 

The payments to rice farmers, who are among the former government’s strongest supporters, has been highly-publicized on military-controlled media all week. 

The military is actively broadcasting its version of the 2014 coup while it simultaneously clamps down on media outlets and individuals that offer different narratives. Over 200 websites have been banned since the military seized power last week, and plans for a national internet gateway, which would augment the army's ability to censor online material, are currently underway.

Yesterday, Facebook was made inaccessible for millions of Thais for about an hour; the army initially took responsibility for the shutdown, but later insisted it was an innocent “technical glitch.” 

(Reporting by Sally Mairs)