diff --git a/opentech/apply/funds/serializers.py b/opentech/apply/funds/serializers.py
index e323fc5b0431b25ed128d752c0b4e6dada5b8fab..bd0a79964b08ab07e6e45627f33316cce73f697b 100644
--- a/opentech/apply/funds/serializers.py
+++ b/opentech/apply/funds/serializers.py
@@ -1,8 +1,12 @@
+import mistune
 from rest_framework import serializers
+from django_bleach.templatetags.bleach_tags import bleach_value
 
 from opentech.apply.activity.models import Activity
 from .models import ApplicationSubmission, RoundsAndLabs
 
+markdown = mistune.Markdown()
+
 
 class ActionSerializer(serializers.Field):
     def to_representation(self, instance):
@@ -108,11 +112,15 @@ class RoundLabSerializer(serializers.ModelSerializer):
 
 class CommentSerializer(serializers.ModelSerializer):
     user = serializers.StringRelatedField()
+    message = serializers.SerializerMethodField()
 
     class Meta:
         model = Activity
         fields = ('id', 'timestamp', 'user', 'submission', 'message', 'visibility')
 
+    def get_message(self, obj):
+        return bleach_value(markdown(obj.message))
+
 
 class CommentCreateSerializer(serializers.ModelSerializer):
     user = serializers.StringRelatedField()
diff --git a/opentech/static_src/src/app/src/components/RichTextForm/index.js b/opentech/static_src/src/app/src/components/RichTextForm/index.js
index 2e40618893868143ba52bd143bb280f52925134d..bf34961085c6a49962c5fadd78c6c89bc8b5894e 100644
--- a/opentech/static_src/src/app/src/components/RichTextForm/index.js
+++ b/opentech/static_src/src/app/src/components/RichTextForm/index.js
@@ -57,6 +57,6 @@ export default class RichTextForm extends React.Component {
     }
 
     handleSubmit = () => {
-        this.props.onSubmit(this.state.value.toString('markdown'), this.resetEditor);
+        this.props.onSubmit(this.state.value.toString('html'), this.resetEditor);
     }
 }
diff --git a/opentech/static_src/src/app/src/containers/Note.js b/opentech/static_src/src/app/src/containers/Note.js
index 58551e46f22ee5c19ebe6694e86e70938ff79d29..9f297145bc34b0939cef8354166084d8db41435d 100644
--- a/opentech/static_src/src/app/src/containers/Note.js
+++ b/opentech/static_src/src/app/src/containers/Note.js
@@ -2,7 +2,6 @@ import React from 'react';
 import { connect } from 'react-redux';
 import PropTypes from 'prop-types';
 import moment from 'moment';
-import { markdown } from 'markdown';
 
 import { getNoteOfID } from '@selectors/notes';
 import NoteListingItem from '@components/NoteListingItem';
@@ -21,7 +20,7 @@ class Note extends React.Component {
 
         return <NoteListingItem
                 user={note.user}
-                message={markdown.toHTML(note.message)}
+                message={note.message}
                 timestamp={moment(note.timestamp)}
         />;
     }