Disrupting Politics

Step inside the rooms that reshaped the relationship between platforms and politics.

What happens to democracy when technology moves faster than we can govern it?

For Katie Harbath, that question isn’t theoretical—it has defined her career, her conscience, and the sleepless nights in between for 25 years. From helping invent digital campaign tactics to shaping elections that impacted billions as a Facebook executive, she was inside the rooms where the future was being decided before anyone knew the cost.

In this candid memoir, Harbath takes readers from dolphin-suit RNC stunts to Silicon Valley operation centers, from debate stages to congressional hearings. With unflinching honesty about the 2016 election, Cambridge Analytica, and the dismantling of integrity teams, she brings readers into the defining moments that reshaped the relationship between platforms and politics.

Disrupting Politics is the story of what it means to believe in both technology and democracy—and what it costs to spend two decades inside the tension between them. It offers hard-earned wisdom on scaling powerful algorithms, holding the middle when every option feels like the wrong one, and protecting free speech without breaking the system it depends on.