FRESH claims have been made that the pro-independence campaign has been organising so-called cybernat attacks on pro-Union figures.
Yesterday Yes Scotland denounced what it described as "unsubstantiated" claims, saying they did nothing to raise the tone of the referendum debate.
Earlier this year, Alistair Darling, leader of the Better Together campaign, denounced what he described as the Nationalists' "disgraceful" internet campaign against those who spoke up for the Union, saying the attacks shamed Scotland.
At the weekend, the former Labour Chancellor, who had branded the cybernat criticism as "vile abuse", suggested the attacks had not gone away.
"It is a real problem. When I started doing this a few years ago, I didn't believe it but more and more people have said to me: 'We've been told to shut up.'
As an example Mr Darling cited attacks on Bill Munro, the founder of Barrhead Travel, after he emailed staff warning independence would be a 'complete disaster' .
"Look what happens when any business puts its head above the parapet, look what happens with the cybernats."
Pressed on whether or not he believed any senior figures in the Yes campaign had any involvement in the abuse, Mr Darling replied: "All I know is it seems to switch on and off remarkably uniformly. Remember, on the day we launched our campaign, one of our 'ordinary people' who appeared on stage was subject to the most violent online abuse?
"When she started complaining, and there was quite a fuss, it all stopped within 20 minutes."
In response, a spokesman for Yes Scotland pointed to a recent poll, which showed that while 8% of No supporters had been victims of online abuse, some 21% of Yes supporters had been.
He said: "It is incumbent on both sides of the argument, including Mr Darling, to ensure the debate is conducted in a respectful and courteous manner.
"Expressing unsubstantiated claims based on mere suspicion is not helpful and does nothing to raise the standard."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article