Katie Harbath

Katie Harbath is the founder and chief executive officer of the technology policy firm Anchor Change. She is known for her work advising politicians and governments on social media use at Facebook, where she previously held an executive position as the company's director of public policy for global elections. Harbath left Facebook in 2021.

Early and personal life Harbath was raised in a conservative family in Green Bay, Wisconsin, where her father was a paper mill executive. Harbath studied journalism and political science at the University of Wisconsin. In her role, Harbath also traveled internationally, coaching governments and political campaigns on social media use. Harbath later became Facebook's public policy director for global elections and managed a staff of 60 employees that trained political parties how to use the platform, and helped design the company's election policy. Harbath said she initially thought social media would lead to greater transparency from governments, but began to doubt that premise in 2016 when she saw the amount of misinformation on social media surrounding Brexit, the 2016 United States presidential election, and the 2016 Philippine presidential election. She left the company in 2021. and joined the Integrity Institute, an organization that advises American and European lawmakers on legislation around social media and advocates for stronger regulations of the industry. As of 2022, she was also a fellow at several think tanks focused on political issues, As of February 2024, she was the chief global affairs officer of Duco Experts, a technology firm.