Canva has apologized after its Magic Layers AI feature was found to be automatically replacing the word “Palestine” with “Ukraine” in user designs. The company says it has since fixed the issue and is taking steps to prevent it from recurring.
The problem was first surfaced in April 2026 by X user @ros_ie9, who discovered that the feature had changed the phrase “cats for Palestine” to “cats for Ukraine.” Magic Layers is designed to break flat images into separate editable components — it is not intended to make any visible alterations to a design’s text or content.
The substitution appeared to target the word “Palestine” specifically. According to @ros_ie9, related terms such as “Gaza” were not affected by the same behavior. Replies to the viral post indicated that other users were able to replicate the issue before Canva deployed a fix.
“We became aware of an issue with our Magic Layers feature and moved quickly to investigate and fix it,” Canva spokesperson Louisa Green told The Verge. “We take reports like this very seriously, and we’re putting additional checks in place to help prevent this in future. We’re sorry for any distress this may have caused.”
The incident is a significant stumble for Canva, which has positioned Magic Layers as a central part of a broader AI overhaul the company describes as “the beginning of the next era of creation.” Canva is increasingly competing against Adobe’s suite of AI-powered design tools, and an AI feature that silently alters user content could raise concerns about trust and reliability among its user base.
Source: The Verge