Canva says it has fixed an issue in its Magic Layers feature after users reported that the tool changed the phrase “Cats for Palestine” to “Cats for Ukraine” inside a design.
"this shouldn't have happened and we're very sorry for your experience!", Canva said in a response to a user.
The issue was first highlighted on X by user @ros_ie9 and was later reported by The Verge and Gizmodo this week. According to those reports, the behavior appeared to affect the word “Palestine” specifically, while related words such as “Gaza” or “Israel” were reportedly unaffected.
Image: ros_ie9 / X
A separate statement provided to Gizmodo said the company had launched an audit into how the issue happened and was reviewing its internal testing processes to detect and prevent unexpected outputs in the future. Canva also said the problem was isolated and did not affect designs broadly.
That question has drawn attention because Magic Layers is promoted as a tool for converting flat designs into editable layers, allowing users to manually adjust text and visual elements after processing. Users reported that the wording changed during that process without being requested.
The incident has also received attention because Canva publicly promotes its AI governance framework, Canva Shield, as focused on safe, fair, and secure AI. In its January 2026 update, Canva says its generative AI products go through "rigorous safety reviews", certain prompts involving political topics are automatically moderated, and the company works to reduce bias and improve fairness in AI outputs.
Online discussion following the reports focused on whether the issue reflected a model error, moderation behavior, or another system failure. Some users argued that AI tools should preserve original content exactly when performing layout conversion, while others said companies remain responsible for unexpected outputs regardless of whether the issue came from training data, moderation layers, or external model providers.
The incident follows previous criticism of wider AI systems across the technology and social media industry involving disputed or politically sensitive outputs related to Palestinian Muslims, including earlier concerns involving chatbot responses and image generation tools from other major platforms.
DIW contacted Canva with follow-up questions about the root cause of the Magic Layers issue, whether third-party AI systems were involved, how the company’s audit classified the problem, and what specific safeguards were added beyond the “additional checks” already mentioned publicly. Canva said its investigation found the issue was isolated to a specific phrase triggering an unexpected output in one part of the feature’s underlying model and that it does not believe the issue resulted from intentional moderation of political content or any human-reviewed rule. The company said a full audit remains ongoing and has not publicly provided a timeline for its completion.
Updated on 4:30 PM PST, 28th, April, 2026.
Note: This post was improved using a generative AI tool.
Read next: When AI relationships trigger ‘delusional spirals’
"this shouldn't have happened and we're very sorry for your experience!", Canva said in a response to a user.
The issue was first highlighted on X by user @ros_ie9 and was later reported by The Verge and Gizmodo this week. According to those reports, the behavior appeared to affect the word “Palestine” specifically, while related words such as “Gaza” or “Israel” were reportedly unaffected.
A separate statement provided to Gizmodo said the company had launched an audit into how the issue happened and was reviewing its internal testing processes to detect and prevent unexpected outputs in the future. Canva also said the problem was isolated and did not affect designs broadly.
That question has drawn attention because Magic Layers is promoted as a tool for converting flat designs into editable layers, allowing users to manually adjust text and visual elements after processing. Users reported that the wording changed during that process without being requested.
The incident has also received attention because Canva publicly promotes its AI governance framework, Canva Shield, as focused on safe, fair, and secure AI. In its January 2026 update, Canva says its generative AI products go through "rigorous safety reviews", certain prompts involving political topics are automatically moderated, and the company works to reduce bias and improve fairness in AI outputs.
Online discussion following the reports focused on whether the issue reflected a model error, moderation behavior, or another system failure. Some users argued that AI tools should preserve original content exactly when performing layout conversion, while others said companies remain responsible for unexpected outputs regardless of whether the issue came from training data, moderation layers, or external model providers.
The incident follows previous criticism of wider AI systems across the technology and social media industry involving disputed or politically sensitive outputs related to Palestinian Muslims, including earlier concerns involving chatbot responses and image generation tools from other major platforms.
DIW contacted Canva with follow-up questions about the root cause of the Magic Layers issue, whether third-party AI systems were involved, how the company’s audit classified the problem, and what specific safeguards were added beyond the “additional checks” already mentioned publicly. Canva said its investigation found the issue was isolated to a specific phrase triggering an unexpected output in one part of the feature’s underlying model and that it does not believe the issue resulted from intentional moderation of political content or any human-reviewed rule. The company said a full audit remains ongoing and has not publicly provided a timeline for its completion.
Updated on 4:30 PM PST, 28th, April, 2026.
Note: This post was improved using a generative AI tool.
Read next: When AI relationships trigger ‘delusional spirals’
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