diff --git a/packages/moderation/src/data/nags/project-validation.ts b/packages/moderation/src/data/nags/project-validation.ts
index 4c0ff39877..d3a55fcd64 100644
--- a/packages/moderation/src/data/nags/project-validation.ts
+++ b/packages/moderation/src/data/nags/project-validation.ts
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ const summaryErrorCodes: readonly ProjectTextValidationCode[] = [
 	'text-banned-link',
 	'summary-link',
 ]
-const summaryWarningCodes: readonly ProjectTextValidationCode[] = ['summary-matches-title']
+const summaryRequiredCodes: readonly ProjectTextValidationCode[] = ['summary-matches-title']
 const descriptionErrorCodes: readonly ProjectTextValidationCode[] = [
 	'text-slur',
 	'text-profanity',
@@ -151,10 +151,10 @@ export const projectValidationNags: Nag[] = [
 			defaultMessage: 'Review the project summary',
 		}),
 		description: (context) =>
-			getFailureDescription(context, ['summary'], 'warn', summaryWarningCodes),
-		status: 'warning',
+			getFailureDescription(context, ['summary'], 'error', summaryRequiredCodes),
+		status: 'required',
 		shouldShow: (context) =>
-			getFirstFailure(context, ['summary'], 'warn', summaryWarningCodes) !== undefined,
+			getFirstFailure(context, ['summary'], 'error', summaryRequiredCodes) !== undefined,
 		link: {
 			path: 'settings',
 			title: defineMessage({
@@ -189,7 +189,7 @@ export const projectValidationNags: Nag[] = [
 			defaultMessage: 'Clean up the summary',
 		}),
 		description: (context) => getCodedFailureDescription(context, 'summary-special-formatting'),
-		status: 'warning',
+		status: 'required',
 		shouldShow: (context) => getCodedFailure(context, 'summary-special-formatting') !== undefined,
 		link: {
 			path: 'settings',
diff --git a/packages/moderation/src/locales/en-US/index.json b/packages/moderation/src/locales/en-US/index.json
index ee164a750c..0a6cc963e7 100644
--- a/packages/moderation/src/locales/en-US/index.json
+++ b/packages/moderation/src/locales/en-US/index.json
@@ -366,7 +366,7 @@
 		"defaultMessage": "The detected slur “{value}” is not allowed."
 	},
 	"project.text-validation.summary-matches-title": {
-		"defaultMessage": "A project summary should not be the same as its title."
+		"defaultMessage": "A project summary cannot be the same as it's title."
 	},
 	"project.text-validation.summary-too-short": {
 		"defaultMessage": "Your summary is {length, plural, one {# character} other {# characters}}. At least {minChars, plural, one {# character} other {# characters}} is recommended to create an informative and enticing summary."
diff --git a/packages/moderation/src/validators/project-fields/index.ts b/packages/moderation/src/validators/project-fields/index.ts
index 8dd05714c0..4878df7cab 100644
--- a/packages/moderation/src/validators/project-fields/index.ts
+++ b/packages/moderation/src/validators/project-fields/index.ts
@@ -84,7 +84,7 @@ const messages = defineMessages({
 	},
 	summaryMatchesTitle: {
 		id: 'project.text-validation.summary-matches-title',
-		defaultMessage: 'A project summary should not be the same as its title.',
+		defaultMessage: "A project summary cannot be the same as it's title.",
 	},
 	summaryTooShort: {
 		id: 'project.text-validation.summary-too-short',
@@ -138,8 +138,8 @@ export function normalizeProjectFieldText(value: string) {
 }
 
 export function projectSummaryMatchesTitle(summary: string, title: string) {
-	const normalizedSummary = normalizeProjectFieldText(summary)
-	const normalizedTitle = normalizeProjectFieldText(title)
+	const normalizedSummary = normalizeProjectFieldText(summary).replace(/\s+/g, '')
+	const normalizedTitle = normalizeProjectFieldText(title).replace(/\s+/g, '')
 
 	return normalizedSummary.length > 0 && normalizedSummary === normalizedTitle
 }
@@ -353,7 +353,7 @@ export function validateProjectSummary(
 		return [
 			{
 				code: 'summary-matches-title',
-				severity: 'warn',
+				severity: 'error',
 				message: messages.summaryMatchesTitle,
 			},
 		]
@@ -372,7 +372,7 @@ export function validateProjectSummary(
 	if (hasProjectSummaryFormatting(summary) || containsExplicitLink) {
 		results.push({
 			code: containsExplicitLink ? 'summary-link' : 'summary-special-formatting',
-			severity: containsExplicitLink ? 'error' : 'warn',
+			severity: 'error',
 			message: messages.summarySpecialFormatting,
 		})
 	}
diff --git a/packages/moderation/src/validators/project-fields/tests.ts b/packages/moderation/src/validators/project-fields/tests.ts
index 5dee5d7bad..3a6c062486 100644
--- a/packages/moderation/src/validators/project-fields/tests.ts
+++ b/packages/moderation/src/validators/project-fields/tests.ts
@@ -15,8 +15,9 @@ import {
 	validateProjectTitle,
 } from './index.ts'
 
-test('compares summaries and titles after trimming and Unicode normalization', () => {
+test('compares summaries and titles without whitespace and after Unicode normalization', () => {
 	assert.equal(projectSummaryMatchesTitle('  Caf\u00e9  ', 'Cafe\u0301'), true)
+	assert.equal(projectSummaryMatchesTitle('Project summary', 'Projectsummary'), true)
 	assert.equal(projectSummaryMatchesTitle('Project summary', 'Project title'), false)
 	assert.equal(projectSummaryMatchesTitle('', ''), false)
 })
@@ -127,7 +128,11 @@ test('validates project summaries', () => {
 		validateProjectSummary('  Caf\u00e9  ', 'Cafe\u0301')[0]?.message.id,
 		'project.text-validation.summary-matches-title',
 	)
-	assert.equal(validateProjectSummary('  Caf\u00e9  ', 'Cafe\u0301')[0]?.severity, 'warn')
+	assert.equal(validateProjectSummary('  Caf\u00e9  ', 'Cafe\u0301')[0]?.severity, 'error')
+	assert.equal(
+		validateProjectSummary('  Caf\u00e9  ', 'Cafe\u0301')[0]?.message.defaultMessage,
+		"A project summary cannot be the same as it's title.",
+	)
 	assert.deepEqual(validateProjectSummary('Short summary', 'Project title'), [
 		{
 			code: 'summary-too-short',
@@ -148,6 +153,7 @@ test('validates project summaries', () => {
 		validateProjectSummary('# Short summary', 'Project title').map(({ code }) => code),
 		['summary-too-short', 'summary-special-formatting'],
 	)
+	assert.equal(validateProjectSummary('# Short summary', 'Project title')[1]?.severity, 'error')
 	assert.equal(
 		validateProjectSummary('# Short summary', 'Project title')[1]?.message.defaultMessage,
 		summaryContentMessage,
diff --git a/packages/moderation/src/validators/project-validation/tests.ts b/packages/moderation/src/validators/project-validation/tests.ts
index 6a20e0dad2..f1d94719b0 100644
--- a/packages/moderation/src/validators/project-validation/tests.ts
+++ b/packages/moderation/src/validators/project-validation/tests.ts
@@ -87,6 +87,12 @@ test('reports whether a project has field validation failures', () => {
 	})
 	assert.equal(hasProjectFieldValidationFailures(validProject), false)
 	assert.equal(hasProjectFieldValidationFailures(invalidProject), true)
+	assert.equal(
+		hasProjectFieldValidationFailures(
+			createProject({ name: 'Ordinary Tools', summary: 'Ordinary Tools' }),
+		),
+		true,
+	)
 })
 
 test('treats version numbers and explicit summary links as errors', () => {
@@ -148,3 +154,18 @@ test('reports summary recommendations without invalidating the project', () => {
 	})
 	assert.equal(hasProjectFieldValidationFailures(project), false)
 })
+
+test('treats summary formatting as a field validation failure', () => {
+	const project = createProject({ summary: '# A formatted project summary' })
+	const result = validateProjectFields(project)
+
+	assert.equal(result.valid, false)
+	assert.deepEqual(
+		result.failures.map(({ code, severity }) => ({ code, severity })),
+		[
+			{ code: 'summary-too-short', severity: 'warn' },
+			{ code: 'summary-special-formatting', severity: 'error' },
+		],
+	)
+	assert.equal(hasProjectFieldValidationFailures(project), true)
+})