Explaining the viral TikTok trend cute winter boots and its unexpected ties to US censorship
Is TikTok suppressing Donald Trump-critical content on its platform? Multiple creators seem to think so, arguing that search terms such as ‘Trump rigged election’, reveal no results in the US. Abroad, however, an avalanche of videos allegedly appears, when one searches for the same term. So, netizens did what they do best—they came up with crafty new ways to circumvent the censorship. The most popular solution? Using the secret term ‘cute winter boots’ in videos to trick the algorithm.
Why is the phrase ‘cute winter boots’ trending on TikTok?
Under the innocuous phrases ‘winter boots’ or ‘cute winter boots’, netizens are now hiding political topics on TikTok which might otherwise get shadowbanned.
@lissamama_ the lemkin institute. cute winter boots is essential for the cold!! next wednesday is a very cold time for most of us, be prepared & stand together.
♬ headlock x jinx from arcane - ZOMBIE
@xxsar__maxx Please keep sharing ur winter boots with me guys #Inverted #winter #winterboots #cutewinterboots
♬ original sound - Sara Margaret🍉🌈
Obviously, the terms evoke the idea of fashion, shopping and trend discourse—something the highly commercialised app is primed to promote. Thus, it serves as the perfect Trojan horse to sneak political content onto everyone’s FYPs.
Leave it to Gen Zers to figure out how to play the TikTok algorithm like a fiddle—respect. I am confident that we could figure out climate change and world peace if we put our heads to it.
So if you’ve seen a video recently with a caption such as “Cute winter boots [are] essential for the cold!!” you’re likely about to be served a clip discussing the frightening nature of Elon Musk’s Roman salute during the inauguration in early January.
Millions of people are watching and circulating these videos, which led search interest in the term to spike globally on 25 January 2025. The hashtag ‘cutewinterboots’ currently sits at 34,200 posts.
The term was quickly adopted to discuss the ongoing ICE raids too, as well as banned literature, and access to abortion in states where the practice has been limited.
@tamiastar Cute winter boots update. It appears the new store owner does not have the resources to ship out the boots that he promised his community he would ship. But it’s great news for us because these are the boots that we love. It exposes that there are weaknesses! #greenscreen #winterboots #cuteboots #cutewinterboots
♬ 星际穿越 Interstellar Piano - MegaPanda
@luciferf18 guys look at my new winter collection!! #snowboots #winterboots #fypシ #abcxyz #booktok #fashion #grwm #vlog #barnesandnoble #benandjerrys #fivebelow
♬ original sound - mia - mia
When Cosmopolitan UK reached out to TikTok for comment, they maintained that neither the platform’s policies nor algorithms have changed over the last few days. A spokesperson also pointed out that the app’s policies are publicly available for whoever would like to view them, and said that search terms related to ‘rigged election’ claims in America have previously been used to push harmful misinformation, hence why it’s blocked over there.
Still, in light of recent political developments that involved Donald Trump pushing through a 75-day extension for the controversial TikTok ban, it led many to believe that the app was placing favours.
Particularly, because many tech billionaires and social media moguls such as Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk have started to court the Trump administration to gain favours.
Bezos interestingly prevented his liberal news site Washington Post from endorsing a presidential candidate last year, while Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg sacked his team of “politically biased” fact-checkers, and Elon Musk… well, let’s not talk about his attempts to revamp Roman gestures.
