‘Cute winter boots’ explained: What does the phrase mean and why is everyone on TikTok saying it?
TikTok users are using the phrase “winter boots” or “cute winter boots” to bypass censorship against political discourse
![TikTok users are finding new ways to express their criticisms of President Trump](https://static.the-independent.com/2025/01/28/16/SEI237622199.jpg)
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Your support makes all the difference.If you’ve been scrolling through TikTok confused by videos using the phrase “winter boots” or “cute winter boots”, you are not alone. Despite the innocuous name, the phrase has become a growing trend to discuss political topics on TikTok which might otherwise get people shadowbanned.
Many TikTok users may be relieved that Donald Trump halted the recent ban, but that doesn’t mean they’ve come around to supporting the President.
Just days after the inauguration, users started posting videos critical of Trump and employing the phrase to bypass any potential algorithm ban that prevents them from discussing politics.
Videos using the phrase have seen people talking about Trump’s policies, detailing local protests and how to stay safe at demonstrations, how to deal with ICE enforcement officers and even questioning the legitimacy of the 2024 election. Millions of people have watched these videos and search interest in the term spiked globally on 25 January.
@kristinacotton I can't DENY how cute the boots were today. it's hard not to DEFEND them. I didn't see anyone DEPOSE of any winter boots either. #cutewinterboots #winterboots #chicago #fyp #foryoupage
♬ origineel geluid - nina.editss
Why are people using the phrase ‘cute winter boots’?
The phrase ‘cute winter boots’ may evoke lifestyle trend discourse, but it is instead being used in an attempt to avoid censorship while talking about politics.
One theory suggests that the term feeds into TikTok’s pivot towards e-commerce, after the platform launched its TikTok Shop in September 2023. Another suggests the term is an example of algo-speak, where TikTok users have started switching out phrases that might be flagged in the search algorithm.
Users have told The Independent that the phrase has helped signal boost posts that might otherwise be suppressed by the algorithm.
One user, Julia, shared a video of herself on the platform with the caption: “hey so these BOOTS are so cute right guys?!?!?! Right?!?!?! INSANE!!!!!!”, which was viewed by two million people.
She used the phrase to signpost an audio from Donald Trump’s victory rally in Pennsylvania where he spoke about election rigging and being president in time for both the Olympics and the World Cup.
Julia told The Independent: “Quite a few people began to notice that when you outwardly say his name in a video it’s either shadow banned or censored completely”, in reference to the President.
“The only way to talk about it without the video being removed was using ‘boots’”, she said.
Julia first saw it from the TikTok audio clip of Taylor Holmes reading Rudyard Kipling’s poem “Boots”, which became popular after the recent trailer for Danny Boyle’s 28 Years Later.
Julia admitted that when she saw the video from Donald Trump’s victory rally, in which he talks about how “they rigged the election”, she thought it sounded like he was admitting to voter fraud.
Fact checking platform PolitiFact countered theories that the President was admitting to rigging the 2024 election by pointing out he was in fact talking about the 2020 election, which he has falsely claimed was rigged against him.
They said: “He was saying that if he had won the 2020 election, he couldn’t have served for a third term, and therefore wouldn’t be president during the 2026 World Cup and the 2028 Olympics. But because he didn’t win the 2020 election, he could serve his second term from 2025 to 2029, a period including both events.”
“I watched the entire speech on TV and I knew he said Elon definitely had something to do with votes in Pennsylvania”, Julia added, in reference to quotes where Trump spoke about Elon Musk campaigning in the swing state.
She reposted a clip where Trump said that the Tesla CEO “knows those computers better than anybody, all those computers those vote counting computers.”
What is shadowbanning?
Shadowbanning is a term used to describe alleged censorship by social media platforms, which means people who post about certain topics get suppressed from reaching their full potential audience.
TikTok, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram are a number of platforms that have faced accusations of shadowbanning users. Donald Trump himself accused Twitter of shadowbanning conservative voices in 2018.
He’d go on to use these claims to drum up interest in his own social media company, Truth Social, as he declared: “there will be no shadow-banning, throttling, demonetising, or messing with algorithms for political manipulation.”
The Center for Democracy and Technology has called for further transparency surrounding shadowbanning.
They said: “Online services should publicly disclose their policies around opaque content moderation practices (regardless of whether they use the term “shadowban”), including whether they ever take action against users’ content or accounts without informing them. Providers should explain the general criteria they apply for deciding when to engage in opaque content moderation.”
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