Canva POLITICAL

Request ID: 214afecd-2fae-4429-93ea-dc75605a71c1 Research cut-off: 7 October 2026

This audit separates Canva corporate conduct from customer-created content, employees, acquired businesses, founders, and outside investors. Per the requested convention, the tag [pre-2020] is used for evidence more than five years old at the research cut-off even where the underlying event occurred in 2020 or 2021.

Corporate Communications & Public Stance

Statements

On 11 October 2023, Canva confirmed that it removed Students for Justice in Palestine templates after being alerted to them. An unnamed Canva spokesman said the imagery explicitly referenced a recent act of violence, violated Canva policy, and had been taken down; the spokesman also said Canva was “devastated” by violence taking place across Israel and Gaza and expressed concern for everyone affected.¹ This is the clearest verified Canva corporate statement located in the retrieved 2023 Israel/Gaza record.¹

No public evidence identified of a dedicated Canva Newsroom statement on Israel/Gaza comparable in detail to its Ukraine statement within the live-web source set reviewed for this audit.^{2, 1} A 6 November 2023 Change.org petition specifically asked Canva to publish a position and to answer allegations that pro-Palestine posts and profile pictures were being removed; those allegations are petition claims, not independently established facts.³

Comparative public posture

In 2022 Canva published a detailed Ukraine position saying it stood firmly with Ukraine, condemned Russia’s aggression, blocked Russian payments from 1 March, deployed US$1 million through the Canva Foundation to Ukrainian contributors and nonprofits, created free pro-peace material, shipped 3,000 USB power banks, and matched employee donations up to US$5,000 per employee.²

In 2022 Canva also launched “Aussies for Afghanistan,” initially committing AUD$250,000 and naming MSF, UNHCR and the Organization for Development Solutions as partners.⁴ In 2020 [pre-2020], Canva published a Black Lives Matter programme covering content-library/search changes, free BLM/Juneteenth assets, anti-discrimination measures and paid volunteer time for employees supporting the movement; status: this is a historical public programme and the current Israel/Palestine relevance is comparative only.⁵

The retrieved record therefore shows detailed, named corporate initiatives for Ukraine, Afghanistan and Black Lives Matter, while the verified 2023 Israel/Gaza corporate wording located here is the shorter spokesman statement above.^{5, 2, 4, 1} No score or inference about motive is assigned.

Market framing

As of 2026, Canva’s partner directory lists Xanadu as a Canva Certified Reseller for Enterprise, Business and Campus, headquartered in Dubai with locations also in London and Riyadh; “Israel” appears among its countries of service.⁶ The listing describes regional enterprise deployment and governance/integration services but does not identify an Israeli military, defense, or settlement customer.⁶

Canva’s current procurement page says customers in North America contract with Canva US, Inc., UK customers with Canva UK Operations Ltd, and all other customers with Canva Pty Ltd.⁷ This is standard geographic contracting language rather than Israel-specific geopolitical positioning.⁷

Operations in Occupied or Contested Territories

Territorial presence and Israel-facing commerce

A 2022 Israeli Ministry of Health procurement record identifies a purchase of “CANVA” licences from CANVA US INC; the page reports a contract figure of NIS 491.4 and NIS 1,511 in recorded Q1 2022 payments.⁸ The record concerns a civilian health ministry and does not identify an IDF or Ministry of Defense use.⁸

A separate Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs record for 2024 describes renewal of a CANVA software licence for a training/ICT team through Design Business (L.A. Software) Ltd, with a NIS 1,709 engagement and NIS 1,695 recorded as paid in July–September 2024.⁹ Open Budget cautions that its data originate in public/government datasets and may contain errors, so the record is treated as evidence of a reported civilian procurement, not as a Canva-authored disclosure.⁹ Because the payment is reported only by quarter, the record overlaps the period after the ICJ advisory opinion of 19 July 2024 but does not establish the exact payment date.⁹

The current 2026 reseller listing shows continued commercial availability in Israel after November 2024.⁶ no public evidence identified in the focused searches of an IDF, Israeli Ministry of Defense, settlement municipality, settlement enterprise, or occupied-territory facility buying Canva services.^{6, 9, 8}

UN/OHCHR and settlement scrutiny

At the Human Rights Council in September 2025, OHCHR described its updated settlement-business database as covering listed settlement-related activity from 2 August 2019 to 30 April 2025 and stated that the update reviewed only part of the businesses under consideration because of the volume of allegations and resource limits.¹⁰ Site-restricted searches for Canva and the named acquired brands did not surface a public listing in the retrieved material; accordingly, no public evidence identified of Canva being named in the OHCHR settlement-business database, but this is not treated as a definitive clearance because OHCHR itself describes the update as partial.¹⁰

The A/HRC/59/23 report and predecessor/Special Rapporteur materials were searched by Canva and acquired-brand names. No public evidence identified in the retrieved search-indexed material naming Canva. Unstable/blocked UN landing pages were not used as End Notes merely to convert a search absence into a definitive factual claim.

Civil-society and boycott campaign history

A November 2023 Change.org campaign sought a Canva statement on Palestine and asked the company to address alleged removals of pro-Palestine content and the recipients of reported donations.³ This demonstrates public pressure, while the underlying removal/donation claims in the petition remain unverified by that source.³

Sada Social reported in March 2025 that, during February 2025, it recorded for the first time a digital violation targeting Palestinian content on Canva.¹¹ Its public summary does not identify the specific Canva account/content, technical mechanism, decision-maker, or Canva response, so it does not by itself establish a systemic moderation policy.¹¹

No public evidence identified in the focused official-list searches that Canva is a named target on a formal BDS Movement corporate target list, Who Profits company profile, or AFSC Investigate profile. The petition and Sada Social report are therefore recorded as civil-society pressure/monitoring rather than proof of an organized divestment campaign against Canva.^{3, 11}

Internal Governance, Content & Retail Policies

Employee relations

No public evidence identified of a Canva HR disciplinary case, dismissal, union lawsuit, or formal employee-policy dispute specifically concerning pro-Palestinian or pro-Israeli speech in the source set reviewed.

Platform and editorial policy

Canva’s Acceptable Use Policy, last updated 7 August 2025, gives Canva enforcement discretion and prohibits uses involving discrimination, hostility or violence and illegal activity including terrorism.¹² The October 2023 SJP-template removal was explicitly justified by Canva under this violence/harm policy framework.^{1, 12}

The November 2023 petition alleged that Canva was taking down pro-Palestine posts and profile images; the petition presented these as claims for Canva to answer and does not independently prove the removals.³ Sada Social’s February 2025 report supplies an independent but minimally specified record of one Canva-related Palestinian-content violation.¹¹

On 27 April 2026, PetaPixel reported that users replicated a Magic Layers failure in which “Palestine” was changed to “Ukraine,” while “Gaza” was unaffected.¹³ Canva spokesperson Louisa Green said Canva investigated and fixed the issue, was adding checks and apologized for distress.¹³ The retrieved evidence establishes a product failure and response; no public evidence identified establishing that the substitution was a deliberate political moderation rule.¹³

Canva’s current Authority Request Policy states that user information is disclosed in response to valid legal process or specified emergencies and says Canva does not voluntarily provide user data to governments for surveillance.¹⁴ no public evidence identified in this audit of Israel-specific government surveillance access to Canva user data.¹⁴

Retail and supply-chain practices

No public evidence identified of Canva labeling, sourcing or categorizing settlement-origin physical goods, or of a regulator finding a Canva settlement-related retail/supply-chain violation.

Brand Heritage & State Partnerships

Marketing positioning

Canva’s public mission and acquisition materials frame the business around visual communication, design accessibility and creative software; no public evidence identified of military heritage, defense-sector origins, or state-security origins being used as Canva’s commercial brand heritage.^{15, 16}

Institutional ties and sponsorships

On 5 February 2026, Dubai Chamber of Digital Economy announced an agreement with Canva, signed during the World Governments Summit by Canva co-founder/COO Cliff Obrecht and a Dubai Chamber executive, to establish Canva’s regional headquarters in Dubai and support 250,000 SMEs and individuals over five years.¹⁷ The government announcement describes the agreement as supporting UAE digital-transformation and AI objectives.¹⁷ This is a formal non-Israeli state/economic-development partnership; it does not establish an Israel/Palestine political partnership.¹⁷

On 5 February 2025, an event titled “Beyond the Ceasefire: Solidarity, Safety, and Justice” took place at Canva’s community space at 110 Kippax Street, Surry Hills.¹⁸ The ticket page identifies Our Race as host and describes Palestinian-led discussion concerning Gaza and the West Bank.¹⁸ The evidence establishes venue use, not Canva authorship or political sponsorship of the event.¹⁸

No public evidence identified of Canva sponsoring a “Brand Israel” campaign, accepting an Israeli state honor, or entering a non-commercial institutional partnership with the Israeli military or settlement bodies.

Lobbying, Advocacy, Financing & Logistics

Political lobbying

No public evidence identified in the focused searches of Canva corporate lobbying or PAC activity concerning anti-BDS laws, Israel military aid, settlement policy, or other Israel/Palestine legislation. No investor political activity is attributed to Canva without a Canva-specific governance or decision nexus.^{19, 20}

Financial contributions

In 2025 MSF Australia says it became a Crisis Response Partner of the Canva Foundation and that Canva’s support includes funding humanitarian responses to crises plus access to Canva products.²¹ The stable partner page does not specify a Gaza allocation or amount.²¹

Canva’s 2025 Impact Wrap says it had donated US$4.2 million toward crisis relief since 2021 and names bushfires in Australia/US, famine in Sudan, conflicts in Afghanistan and Ukraine, and floods/storms in Afghanistan, the Philippines, US and Myanmar.²² Gaza is not named in that published list.²² The same report says that in 2025 employees donated US$390,000 to causes and Canva matched donations dollar-for-dollar, producing US$758,000 in total; it does not publish the recipient list on that page.²²

For October–November 2023 specifically, the Change.org petition referred to “donations and their recipients” as something it wanted Canva to explain, but it does not establish the amount, recipient, or corporate decision.³ no public evidence identified in the stable retrieved primary/corporate record of a dated Canva/Foundation Gaza-specific donation amount in October 2023 or afterward.^{3, 21, 22}

No public evidence identified of Canva, Canva Foundation, Melanie Perkins, Cliff Obrecht or Cameron Adams donating to the IDF, FIDF, JNF/KKL, Israeli reservist funds, settlement organizations, Regavim, Im Tirtzu, or other military-welfare/settlement bodies in the focused searches.

Crisis asset mobilization

Canva’s 2022 Ukraine response included US$1 million in donations, 3,000 USB power banks, free pro-peace templates, employee donation matching and cessation of Russian payment processing.² Its 2022 Afghanistan appeal committed AUD$250,000 and mobilized Canva’s voice and fundraising reach around named humanitarian partners.⁴

For Israel/Gaza, the retrieved record establishes platform moderation actions, a 2025 MSF crisis-response partnership, and venue use by an external Palestine-focused event host.^{1, 18, 21} no public evidence identified of Canva directing free cloud/design infrastructure, logistics, equipment, or other corporate assets to the IDF, Israeli Ministry of Defense, settlement entities, or Israeli military-welfare organizations.^{1, 18, 21}

Corporate Structure & Primary Mission

Legal entity and mission

Canva Pty Ltd is an active Australian private company, with ABN status active from 12 June 2012 [pre-2020]; status: ongoing as of the Australian Business Register extract dated 7 October 2026.¹⁵ Canva’s current procurement material identifies Canva Pty Ltd, Canva US, Inc. and Canva UK Operations Ltd as customer-contracting entities by geography.⁷

Canva’s 2021 [pre-2020] public community note describes its mission as “empowering the world to design” and its “Two-Step Plan” as building a valuable company and using its success to do good.¹⁶ Status: the 2025 Impact Wrap continues to describe the Two-Step Plan and Canva Foundation as active.²² no public evidence identified of a corporate charter or founding mandate tying Canva’s primary mission to advancing Israeli, Palestinian, Australian, or another state’s geopolitical objectives.^{22, 15, 16}

Current equity-owner lens

Dealroom’s 2026 public profile labels its cap table an estimate and shows founders Melanie Perkins, Cliff Obrecht and Cameron Adams at 45% combined, Blackbird Ventures at 13.5%, and the employee option pool at 12%; Dealroom says the percentages are indicative and some investors are hidden.¹⁹ These figures are not treated as audited ownership percentages.¹⁹

Canva’s 2021 [pre-2020] US$200 million funding announcement named T. Rowe Price, Franklin Templeton, Sequoia Global Equities, Bessemer, Greenoaks, Dragoneer, Blackbird and Felicis among participants; status: that announcement establishes participation in the 2021 round, not each investor’s 2026 stake.²⁰ Investor conduct is not treated as Canva conduct without a specific governance, financing or decision nexus.^{19, 20}

In 2021 [pre-2020], Melanie Perkins and Cliff Obrecht said they were committing the vast majority of their equity, described as 30% of Canva, to doing good through the company’s Step Two/Canva Foundation mission; status: Canva’s 2025 Impact Wrap still cites that commitment, but the reviewed materials do not provide a current legal share-register entry showing how much of the 30% has been transferred at any given date.^{22, 16}

Acquired businesses and controlled brands

• Pexels and Pixabay: Canva announced their acquisition on 17 May 2019 [pre-2020]; status: historical acquisition confirmed, while this audit did not locate separate current legal-entity filings for each brand.²³
• Kaleido/remove.bg and Smartmockups: Canva announced the two acquisitions in 2021 [pre-2020]; Kaleido was identified as Austrian and the company behind remove.bg, while Smartmockups was subsequently folded into Canva Mockups; status: product integration is ongoing, but the announcement alone is not a current legal-entity register.²⁴
• Flourish: Canva states it acquired London-based Flourish in 2021 [pre-2020]; a later integration page identifies co-founder Duncan Clark as Canva’s Head of Europe and says Flourish is now part of the Canva family; status: ongoing integration confirmed by Canva.²⁵
• Affinity / Serif: Canva announced its acquisition of Affinity in March 2024.^{26, 27} UK Companies House lists SERIF (EUROPE) LIMITED, company 02117968, as active in 2026, and Canva’s current Privacy Policy identifies Affinity as a Canva affiliate/service component; status: ongoing group relationship confirmed.^{28, 29}
• Leonardo.Ai: Canva announced the acquisition in July 2024, and its 2024 wrap identifies Leonardo.Ai as an Australian generative-AI company integrated into Canva’s AI products; status: ongoing integration confirmed in the reviewed Canva materials.^{30, 27}

No reviewed acquisition source identifies Pexels, Pixabay, Kaleido/remove.bg, Smartmockups, Flourish, Affinity/Serif or Leonardo.Ai as an Israeli-domiciled acquisition.^{23, 24, 25, 26, 30, 27, 28, 29} no public evidence identified of Canva acquiring an Israeli company in the focused acquisition searches.

Executive & Leadership Footprint

Personal philanthropy and financing

Melanie Perkins and Cliff Obrecht’s 2021 [pre-2020] public equity commitment to Step Two is a verified founder-level philanthropic commitment tied to Canva’s charitable programme.¹⁶ The 2025 Impact Wrap continues to cite that commitment and documents company/Foundation crisis-relief and nonprofit activity.²²

No public evidence identified in the focused searches of verifiable personal donations by Perkins, Obrecht or Cameron Adams to the IDF, FIDF, JNF/KKL, Israeli reservist funds, settlement organizations or comparable military-welfare bodies.^{22, 16}

Public advocacy and statements

Cliff Obrecht authored Canva’s 2022 Ukraine statement and its 2022 Afghanistan appeal, giving a verified executive-level record of public advocacy and resource mobilization on other conflicts/humanitarian crises.^{2, 4} For Israel/Gaza, the October 2023 statement located in this audit was attributed to an unnamed Canva spokesman rather than a founder.¹ no public evidence identified in the stable retrieved source set of a detailed founder-authored Israel/Palestine op-ed, signed letter or comparable public statement by Perkins, Obrecht or Adams.¹

Board memberships and affiliations

No public evidence identified of Perkins, Obrecht or Adams holding a board/leadership role in AIPAC, FIDF, JNF/KKL, CFI, an anti-BDS organization, an Israeli settlement organization, or a comparable Israel/Palestine geopolitical pressure group in the focused searches.

Constructive-notice and settlement-nexus chronology

After the ICJ advisory opinion of 19 July 2024, the Q3 2024 Israeli Foreign Ministry procurement record continued to report a small Canva licence renewal, although the quarterly data do not establish whether payment occurred before or after 19 July.⁹ After the November 2024 ICC warrants, the evidence set shows current Israel service coverage through Canva’s certified reseller, a February 2025 Palestine-focused event hosted by Our Race at Canva’s community space, Sada Social’s February 2025 Canva-related Palestinian-content report, the 2025 MSF crisis-response partnership, and Canva’s April 2026 Magic Layers fix/apology.^{11, 13, 18, 21, 6}

No public evidence identified tying those post-July/post-November events to a settlement sponsorship, settlement donation, IDF/military-welfare donation, or public endorsement of the settlement enterprise.^{10, 11, 13, 18, 21, 6}

Root-Requested Evidence Expansion - 7 October 2026

MSF Australia: Gaza and Sudan support in 2025

MSF Australia and New Zealand’s institutional LinkedIn account states that the Canva Foundation was a Crisis Response Partner and that Canva support helped MSF provide immediate medical humanitarian care in Gaza and Sudan in 2025.³¹ This supplements the pre-existing MSF partner page, which says the partnership began in 2025 and includes crisis-response funding plus Canva product access.²¹ The retrieved sources do not publish the amount, the Gaza/Sudan allocation split, the payment date, or project-level disbursement terms.^{21, 31} The lack of a published amount is recorded as an evidence gap; it does not negate the confirmed Gaza/Sudan purpose described by MSF.³¹

Bob Iger: Canva role and the October 2023 Disney donation

On 5 October 2022, Fortune described Bob Iger as an investor in and adviser to Canva and reported that he had been advising Melanie Perkins and Cliff Obrecht; when asked whether he would join Canva’s board, Iger declined to comment and said they had held many conversations over the preceding year about business challenges and leadership issues.³² By May 2024, Canva’s own Canva Create recap expressly described him as a “Canva Board Member.”³³ The exact appointment date was not located in the bounded source set, so the verified chronology only establishes adviser/investor status on 5 October 2022 and board membership by May 2024; an exact appointment date and current continuation remain unverified.^{33, 32}

On 12 October 2023, The Walt Disney Company announced US$2 million in humanitarian relief following the Hamas attacks, including US$1 million to Magen David Adom and US$1 million to other nonprofits in the region, and quoted Iger in his capacity as Disney CEO.³⁴ The source identifies Disney as the donor; it does not identify Iger personally or Canva as the payer.³⁴ The bounded research did not verify that Iger already held a Canva board seat on 12 October 2023, and no public evidence identified in this expansion ties his Canva advisory or board role to that Disney donation or to a Canva Israel/Palestine decision.^{33, 34, 32}

Square Peg: Canva holding, Israel exposure and attribution limits

Square Peg’s half-year report to 30 June 2024 says its exit activity included a secondary sale of Canva described as a “partial sale.”³⁵ Its report for 31 December 2024 then described Canva as one of Square Peg’s “largest holdings,” and Square Peg’s current portfolio page continues to list Canva, with Paul Bassat named on the investment team.^{36, 37} The reviewed Square Peg sources do not publish a current Canva ownership percentage, voting-control percentage, board right or other governance-control figure.^{35, 36, 37}

Square Peg separately describes Israel as one of its core investment geographies.³⁸ In its 31 December 2023 investor letter, published 22 January 2024, Square Peg said its Israeli team and portfolio had been affected by the Israel/Gaza conflict and that in some portfolio companies up to half of team members had been mobilised continually since 7 October; it also described continuing interest in Israeli startup investment.³⁹ Those are Square Peg’s own investment and public-position facts. The reviewed evidence does not establish that Square Peg’s Israeli portfolio companies are Canva subsidiaries or that Canva directed those investments or statements.^{35, 36, 37, 38, 39}

FY25 group structure and 2025–2026 acquisition refresh

Canva’s FY25 anti-slavery statement, published by the Australian Government Modern Slavery Register, says Canva Pty Ltd and Canva UK Operations Ltd are wholly owned subsidiaries of Canva Australia Holdings Pty Ltd, and that Canva Australia Holdings Pty Ltd is wholly owned by Delaware-incorporated Canva, Inc., identified as the ultimate parent of the Canva group.⁴⁰ The ChatGPT worker initially used the official-register indexed text because of its browser fetch limit. Root independently retrieved the complete 13.7 MB PDF and read its group-structure statement on page 5; the full PDF hash matches protected retrieval.⁴⁰

Allens states that Canva completed four acquisitions between June 2025 and April 2026: MagicBrief in June 2025, Doohly in March 2026, and Simtheory and Ortto in April 2026.⁴¹ This completion record is distinct from Canva’s earlier announcement that it intended to acquire MagicBrief.⁴¹ MagicBrief’s current site carries a notice scheduling the standalone product’s shutdown for 31 July 2026, that the team joined Canva, and that related functionality moved into Canva Grow.⁴² Canva’s 16 September 2026 ProSuite launch identifies Affinity, Cavalry, Flourish and Leonardo as the connected professional suite.⁴³ Product grouping is treated as current product-scope evidence, not as a complete legal-subsidiary register.⁴³

No public evidence identified in the bounded acquisition refresh that MagicBrief, Doohly, Simtheory or Ortto was an Israeli-domiciled acquisition or operated in an Israeli settlement. No political intent is inferred from the acquired products’ AI functionality or from ordinary investor relationships.^{41, 42, 43}