Donald Trump‘s second term kicked off with thousands of arrests as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) carried out the president’s crackdown on undocumented immigrants. In response, protestors and human rights watchdogs have ramped up their activity, and they’ve found a novel way to turn TikTok into a powerful organizing tool.
In thousands of new videos posted since Trump’s return to power, TikTokers have alerted viewers about ICE activity while also instructing them how to act if immigration police officers turn up at their homes, schools, or places of work. Many of those TikTokers — perhaps motivated by a fear of censorship — chose to refer to ICE with coded language rather than naming the organization directly.
That security measure has spawned a new trend: “Cute winter boots.” That’s TikTok’s most common metaphor for immigration raids, since cute winter boots can stop you from slipping on the ice. One creator advised viewers to “memorize your first amendment rights” before going outside in your fashionable new boots.
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“Cute winter boots” is more than just a cutesy coded phrase. On an app with a significant ecommerce operation, mentions of clothing are designed to manipulate a recommendation algorithm that seems to favor references to buyable goods. Some creators have even gone to the trouble of setting up TikTok Shop storefronts that offer relevant narratives, such as Elie Wiesel’s Holocaust memoir Night.
The TikTokers talking about their antifascist TikTok Shop faves are part of a growing group of creators who are hacking algorithmic ranking systems to generate more attention for their content. “What the algorithm likes is products,” TikToker @citiesbydiana told User Mag. “It’s a way to talk about resisting the federal government in a way that will actually reach people.”
Organizers have used the energy surrounding the #cutewinterboots tag to draw attention to demonstrations happening around the country. One of those “sales” (i.e. protests) took place in Seattle earlier this week.
@dannieirvine #cutewinterboots #fypシ #fyp #trending #seattle ♬ original sound – Dannie
With the rise of ICE protestors on TikTok, will Donald Trump’s uneasy alliance with the app stay intact? For now, the president is saying he can save TikTok, but if creators revolt against him, he could start singing a different tune.
But this isn’t just about TikTok. Across all major social platforms, users are uniting to fend off immigration police and reassert unalienable rights. Resources like People Over Papers have popped up to collect information about recent and ongoing ICE raids, and organizations like the ACLU have solicited donations through the power of crowdfunding. At this rate, cute winter boots will remain in fashion throughout all four seasons.
