**Receipt Culture:**

There are right ways and wrong ways to use 'receipts' in moderation. Receipts are screenshots of a user's social media post that is used as proof of wrong doing or validation. They can be falsified and a lot of the time they are used by those that engage in 'cancel culture' to show proof of another users wrongdoing in order to get a group of people to unknowingly shun, ban, or delete a user based on falsified accounts. This highjacks the users friends, social media service etc. and effectively creates new cyber bullies through the act of 'justification'.

**Tips:**

Check the date stamp at the bottom of the receipt.

Verify that the account name isn't a 'spoof account'; an account created to appear like another user.

Search for the post and verify.

If you cannot find the post but the accusation is strong. You can contact them directly under certain circumstances. Be kind. Let them know that there are accusations happening. They may not be aware. You message is not a judgement call. Try to get their side of it.

If everything turns out to be true, refer to your social media networks community guidelines for further action such as muting, deleting specific posts, warning etc.

Receipts should never be held over another person. They should not be believed to be proof of an individual’s morality etc. People grow, they change, they learn. Never use old receipts as proof of anything. In fact, if it’s more than three months old, it’s best to reject it all together and look into the individual posting the receipt for possible cyberbullying and harassment.

**Notes:**

Receipts should only be used for individuals that are not on the social media network except in extreme cases. For example; an individual violating community guidelines or harassing another on a different instance of Mastodon.

__Receipts should never be used as a rallying point for cyberbullying or harassment.__

**Receipts should be used only as proof, when requested by a moderator. In almost every single circumstance it’s better to use Mastadon’s built in reporting tool.**

However, when major instance wide allegations are happening, receipts can help the moderator track down what is happening and gain wider context on the issue at hand before moving forward.

**There are times when receipts are a powerful tool for safety.**

That is when warning concerned parties of an individual that has a history of abuse, racism, supremacy, harassment etc. and they are boldly continuing these actions. In this case, spam the shit out of them and get their accounts removed. Contact the instances mod’s etc. Do not stop short and only protect your own instances users from such attacks.