Canva AI tool replaced 'Palestine' with 'Ukraine' in user designs
Canva's Magic Layers AI tool was found automatically replacing the word 'Palestine' with 'Ukraine' in user designs. The company apologized, confirmed the issue was resolved, and stated it would implement additional checks to prevent similar incidents.
What happened
Canva's Magic Layers feature, an AI tool designed to separate flat images into editable layers, was found to be automatically replacing the word 'Palestine' with 'Ukraine' in user designs without any request from users.
The issue was first flagged by an X user who shared screenshots showing the phrase 'Cats for Palestine' being changed to 'Cats for Ukraine'. Other words such as 'Gaza' were not changed.
Reported impact
The discovery sparked backlash online, with users questioning why the tool was altering text at all, particularly without user authorization.
Governance controls
Canva apologized and said the issue had been corrected. A company spokesperson stated, 'We became aware of an issue with our Magic Layers feature and moved quickly to investigate and fix it.'
The company added that steps are being taken to prevent similar incidents from happening again.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.