

Discover more from Anchor Change with Katie Harbath
Hello again from Kent Island on the Eastern Shore. It’s another beautiful weekend here. Yesterday, my friends and I hung out at a tiki bar and then went to watch a local band play at a place called the Jetty. One of my favorite games to play is to go through each band member and guess what their day job is.
This is me at the tiki bar yesterday.
I won’t lie; I’m struggling with a topic for today’s newsletter. I’ve been having difficulty concentrating and getting my head wrapped around everything. But, it did occur to me that many of you might not know much about me or why I am doing this, so I thought I would reintroduce myself so you knew my motivations and reasons for doing the work that I am doing.
I was born and grew up in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Until I was seven, my family and I lived near Lambeau Field. We are huge Packer fans and are owners of the team. We love to hunt and fish and are a very outdoorsy family. We’re also huge Disney fans. I’m the oldest of three kids, single, and have lived in Washington, DC, for 20 years. (PS: Happy Father’s Day, dad!)
Careerwise, I started my journey post-college at the Republican National Committee in 2003. I worked in the communications department and ran the beginnings of an e-campaign department (as we called it those days.) I bounced around doing digital for various campaigns through the 2010 cycle and then joined Facebook.
At Facebook, my role evolved a lot over ten years. I started working with Republican candidates and elected officials on how to use the platform. In 2013, I pitched to the company that we should build an international team to help political figures use the platform and build a global elections strategy across the company.
That work shifted a ton in the six and a half years I was doing it. We started small where I was building the election day reminders myself and begging and pleading for help across the company wherever I could get it.
In 2015, the civic product team was created, and in 2017, the work shifted primarily to integrity work. By 2019, I was working closely with product teams to develop and deploy civic engagement and election integrity products, including political ads transparency features; developing and executing policies around elections; building the teams that support the government, political, and advocacy partners; working with policymakers on shaping the regulation of elections online, and serving as a spokesperson for the company about these issues. I was involved in this work in major elections for every country worldwide, including the United States, India, Brazil, the United Kingdom, European Union, Canada, the Philippines, and Mexico.
I’ve written in the past about my process in deciding to leave Facebook as well as how I mapped out my post-Facebook journey, so I won’t go into too much detail again here but to say that when deciding to go out on my own, I knew I wanted to keep working at the intersection of technology and democracy in the United States and around the world. I have three pillars that my work fits into:
Mentorship: I liked being a manager, and I love working with students, recent graduates, or anyone interested in this space, so I wanted to make sure a portion of my time when to do that.
Voice: When I left, I had this strong urge - that continues to this day - to write and create. I thought the public discussion of content moderation, elections, politics, speech, and others needed more nuance. I wanted to build up my own brand and thought leadership versus representing the company's point of view. My goal is to call balls and strikes as I see them. I would do some things differently if I could return in time. There are other decisions I’ll continue to defend. There was often no easy answer, and I can see why someone else would have made a different call. In writing this newsletter, I hope to give you a glimpse of those tradeoffs and decision-making processes.
Build: For the last pillar, I didn’t want just to be someone who talked about what should be done, but I wanted to help build the future of this work. This is why I enjoy the work at the Integrity Institute and with people at the platforms as they continue to work through these challenges.
To make this all happen, there really wasn’t a full-time job that would encompass all of this. The thought of a regular, full-time job didn’t appeal to me either. So I decided to put together a portfolio of projects with non-profit orgs like the Bipartisan Policy Center, Integrity Institute, and the International Republican Institute; traditional consulting through organizations like Duco Experts; and write this newsletter and, soon, produce a podcast. (PS: If you are interested in potentially doing something similar, you can check out a book by Christina Wallace called The Portfolio Life.)
I still have a lot that I want to share with the world. Not just my thoughts but the amazing work so many people are doing. I started the paid version of this newsletter in February with the hopes that I might be able to focus more of my time on doing this. If you upgrade, you’ll be supporting my time and my ability to bring in help. Right now, it’s just me putting these together twice a week on top of all my other jobs.
A final note. This work means a lot to me. The people who I’ve had the pleasure of working with mean a lot to me. This work is also hard. There’s a lot of valid criticism about hard decisions, but many involve impossible tradeoffs. I still get anxious about putting forward my thoughts to the public. I know I’ve hurt some people. Some people cheer me on. This tension is weighing heavily on me this morning. Sometimes I think it might be easier to put my head down and not say anything. But I also don’t want anyone else to define my story in this complicated journey. So, I keep writing and hope that in the long run, I will have done so with grace and honor.
Thank you for coming on this adventure with me.
What I’m Reading
TechPolicy.press: Will Open Source AI Shift Power from Big Tech? It Depends
Governing.com: How AI Could Take Over Elections and Undermine Democracy
FiveThirtyEight: 2024 Presidential Elections: Online Memes
Campaigns and Elections: Streaming TV and the Political Market: From a Midterm Year to a Presidential
Pew Research Center: Life on Social Media Platforms in Users' Own Words
Brennan Center for Justice: How AI Puts Elections at Risk and Needed Safeguards
Bloomberg Law: Deputy PM Dowden Says UK Will Host AI Summit in December
Calendar
🚨NEW 🚨
June 21, 2023 - Atlantic Council: Report Launch - Scaling Trust on the Web
June 27, 2023 - SXSW Panel Picker Opens
Topics to keep an eye on:
TV shows about Facebook - Doomsday Machine and second season of Super Pumped
June 21, 2023 - Trump 18-month exclusivity term with Truth Social ends assuming he gives notice
June 22 - Bolsonaro trial starts
June 24 - June 30 - Aspen Ideas Festival
June 24, 2023 – Sierra Leone election
June 25, 2023 – Guatemala election
July 10, 2023 - Trust and Safety Hackathon
July 11-13, 2023 - TrustCon
Mid-July - Code of practice on disinformation platform reports due
July 2023 – Sudan election (likely to have further changes due clashes erupted mid-April, despite temporary humanitarian ceasefire,)
July 23, 2023 – Cambodia election
July 23, 2023 - Spain Election
August 10 - 13, 2023 - Defcon
August 23, 2023 - Zimbabwe Election
August-2023 – Eswatini election
August 23, 2023 - First GOP Presidential Primary Debate
August - End of UK parliamentary session. Must pass Online Safety Bill by then.
Mid-September: All Tech Is Human - Responsible Tech Summit NYC
September 19, 2023 - UN General Assembly high-level debate begins
September 27-29, 2023: Athens Democracy Forum
September 28-29, 2023 - Trust & Safety Research Conference
TBD September: Atlantic Festival
TBD September: Unfinished Live
September 2023 – Bhutan election
September 2023 – Tuvalu election
September 9, 2023 – Maldives election
September 28-29, 2023 - The Atlantic Festival
September 30, 2023 – Slovakia election
September 2023 – Rwanda election
October 2023 – Oman election
October 2023 Poland election
October 8, 2023 – Pakistan election
October 10, 2023 – Liberia election
October 14, 2023 – New Zealand election
October 22, 2023 – Switzerland election
October 29, 2023 – Argentina election
October 2023 – Gabon election
October 2023 – Ukraine election
November 15, 2023 - Aspen Cyber Summit
November 20, 2023 – Marshall Islands election
November 29, 2023 – Argentina election
December 1-3, 2023: Build Peace 2023 Conference
December 20, 2023 – Democratic Republic of the Congo election
December 2023 –Togo election
2023 or 2024 – Peru election
TBD – Dominica election
TBD – Luxembourg election
TBD – Myanmar election
TBD – Spain election
TBD – Gabon election
TBD – Madagascar election
TBD – Haiti election
TBD – Libya election
TBD – Singapore election
2024
January 2024 – Bangladesh election
January 2024 – Finland election
January 13, 2024 – Taiwan election
February 4, 2024 – El Salvador election
February 4, 2024 – Mali election
February 14, 2024 – Indonesia election
February 25, 2024 – Senegal election
February 25, 2024 – Belarus election
March 17, 2024 – Russia election
March 31, 2024 – Ukraine election
April 10, 2024 – South Korea election
April 2024 – Solomon Islands election
April 2024 – Maldives election
May 5, 2024 – Panama election
May 19, 2024 – Dominican Republic election
June 2024 – Mongolia election
June 6-9, 2024 - EU Parliament Elections
July 7, 2024 – Mexico election
July 15 - 18, 2024 - Republican National Convention
August 19 - 22, 2024 - Democratic Convention, Chicago
October 27, 2024 – Uruguay election
October 2024 – Mozambique election
October 2024 – Chad election
November 2024 – Guinea Bissau election
November 2024 – Moldova election
November 2024 – Romania election
November 5, 2024 – United States of America election
November 12, 2024 – Palau election
December 2024 – Croatia election
TBD – Algeria election
TBD – Austria election
TBD – Belgium election
TBD – Botswana election
TBD – Burkina Faso election
TBD – Chad election
TBD – Comoros election
TBD – Croatia election
TBD – Dominica election
TBD – Egypt election
TBD – Ethiopia election
TBD – Georgia election
TBD – Ghana election
TBD – Iceland election
TBD – India election
TBD – Iran election
TBD – Jordan election
TBD – Kiribati election
TBD – Kuwait election
TBD – Lithuania election
TBD – Madagascar election
TBD – Mauritania election
TBD – Mauritius election
TBD – Montenegro election
TBD – North Korea election
TBD – North Macedonia election
TBD – Romania election
TBD – Rwanda election
TBD – San Marino election
TBD – Slovakia election
TBD – South Africa election
TBD – South Sudan election
TBD – Syria election
TBD – Tunisia election
TBD – United States of America election
TBD – Uzbekistan election
TBD – Venezuela election
Reintroducing Myself
I find your professional journey interesting. I think that often the intersection between tech and public policy isn’t as developed as it needs to be, given the growing reliance in everyday life.
Thank you for sharing.
Very healthy and helpful for writer to remind readers of personal history—RNC work, transition to integrity, FB, etc. In today’s media world, too often this is missing and then loss of context comes next. Also, Katie is quite proud of being a public owner of the Packers, unique status in American professional sports. I will work to not hold it against her for being a Packers fan.