The Spanish government is using social media as well as its control over TV, radio and print/online publications in order to spread misinformation and plain lies about the Catalan process of independence. For many months they have curated the Spanish media, and they have recently taken over the Catalan public TV and radio broadcasters (TV3 and Ràdio Catalunya).
I find myself refuting these subjects again and again on Twitter or Facebook. It is already taking too much of my time, so I'm posting these refutals here so in the future I just have to present the link to this page instead of engaging in yet another endless discussion.
Feel free to link here if you find yourself in the same situation during a discussion online.
The Catalan Government did ask for negotiated referendum, plenty of times. The attempts included:
Spain declined, refused or suspended all these attemps (besides the regional elections, which they could do nothing about).
Meanwhile, millions of Catalans kept demonstrating every September 11th for several years in a row asking for independence. In this situation, the referendum went ahead anyway even though the Spanish government had rejected any attempt to celebrate it in a negotiated manner.
The full timeline is available in CatalanVotes: