diff --git a/src/components/RichTextArea/RichTextArea.jsx b/src/components/RichTextArea/RichTextArea.jsx
index 975daba61..18f1026c3 100644
--- a/src/components/RichTextArea/RichTextArea.jsx
+++ b/src/components/RichTextArea/RichTextArea.jsx
@@ -396,8 +396,10 @@ class RichTextArea extends React.Component {
     const {className, avatarUrl, authorName, titlePlaceholder, contentPlaceholder, editMode, isCreating,
       isGettingComment, disableTitle, disableContent, expandedTitlePlaceholder, editingTopic, hasPrivateSwitch, canUploadAttachment, attachments, textAreaOnly } = this.props
     const {editorExpanded, editorState, titleValue, oldMDContent, currentMDContent, uploading, isPrivate, isAddLinkOpen, rawFiles, files} = this.state
+    const emptyStringRegex = /^[\s\n\u200B]*$/g // empty string with space, new line, zero width space character
+    
     let canSubmit = (disableTitle || titleValue.trim())
-      && (disableContent || editorState.getCurrentContent().hasText())
+      && (disableContent || !emptyStringRegex.test(currentMDContent))
     if (editMode && canSubmit) {
       canSubmit = (!disableTitle && titleValue !== this.props.oldTitle) || (!disableContent && oldMDContent !== currentMDContent)
         || (rawFiles.length > 0 || (attachments && files.length < attachments.length))
diff --git a/src/helpers/markdownToState.js b/src/helpers/markdownToState.js
index 376c4b1ad..5295fad58 100644
--- a/src/helpers/markdownToState.js
+++ b/src/helpers/markdownToState.js
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 import {convertFromRaw} from 'draft-js'
 import sanitizeHtml from 'sanitize-html'
+import Alert from 'react-s-alert'
 const Remarkable = require('remarkable')
 
 // Block level items, key is Remarkable's key for them, value returned is
@@ -257,6 +258,11 @@ function markdownToState(markdown, options = {}) {
   const BlockEntities = Object.assign({}, DefaultBlockEntities, options.blockEntities || {})
   const BlockStyles = Object.assign({}, DefaultBlockStyles, options.blockStyles || {})
 
+  // when there is no content, add empty paragraph
+  if (parsedData.length === 0) {
+    blocks.push(getNewBlock(BlockTypes['paragraph_open']()));
+  }
+
   parsedData.forEach((item) => {
 
     if (item.type === 'bullet_list_open') {
@@ -347,10 +353,26 @@ function markdownToState(markdown, options = {}) {
     }, DefaultBlockType)
   }
 
-  return convertFromRaw({
-    entityMap,
-    blocks,
-  })
+  let result;
+  try {
+    result = convertFromRaw({
+      entityMap,
+      blocks,
+    });
+  } catch(error) {
+    // If any error occurs set value to plain text
+    const plainTextBlock = getNewBlock(BlockTypes['paragraph_open']());
+    plainTextBlock.text = markdown;
+    
+    result = convertFromRaw({
+      entityMap: [],
+      blocks: [plainTextBlock],
+    });
+
+    Alert.warning('Some message could not be rendered properly, please contact Topcoder Support')
+  }
+
+  return result;
 }
 
 export default markdownToState