diff --git a/staging/src/k8s.io/legacy-cloud-providers/aws/instances.go b/staging/src/k8s.io/legacy-cloud-providers/aws/instances.go
index 1dbfe2b88af..e18d559b5bb 100644
--- a/staging/src/k8s.io/legacy-cloud-providers/aws/instances.go
+++ b/staging/src/k8s.io/legacy-cloud-providers/aws/instances.go
@@ -158,7 +158,7 @@ func (c *instanceCache) describeAllInstancesUncached() (*allInstancesSnapshot, e
 
 	klog.V(4).Infof("EC2 DescribeInstances - fetching all instances")
 
-	filters := []*ec2.Filter{}
+	var filters []*ec2.Filter
 	instances, err := c.cloud.describeInstances(filters)
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, err