Charles Barkley Rejects Mark Zuckerberg’s $1 Trillion Product and More Despite Underlying Desire

Meta CEO, Mark Zuckerberg stood in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee on January 31 to apologize for the negative impact of social media. The hearing was about online child safety which became a subject on this week’s edition of King Charles. Charles Barkley and Gayle King delved into the age-old social media debate on their CNN show.

Since they’re old friends, King knew that Barkley is notoriously social media-free. She asked him why though. His answer was trademark Sir Charles. “Because I don’t want to bring fools into my life.”

Unlike his social media-savvy bestie, Shaquille O’Neal, Charles Barkley swears off X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, and every other social media platform Meta and otherwise. He does have a profile on the OG, Facebook, which he uses very rarely to share something about his grandchildren. He sticks to traditional media, like appearing on TV interviews instead.

Charles Barkley does admit to his co-host that there are positives to social media. The negativity, however, outweighs the pros for him. “I don’t want to bring anything negative into my life,” he claims but he’s not averse to discussing the same with Mark Zuckerberg.

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“Mark Zuckerberg is somebody I would love to meet one day,” the 1993 NBA MVP told King. Barkley has met some famous names outside the basketball realm too. He once interviewed Barack Obama in the White House. He’s however not met the CEO of Meta yet. Perhaps Zuckerberg is wary of Chuck’s harsh comments on social media culture.

Social media repels Charles Barkley

Discussing his lack of online profiles in 2022, Chuck said, “A lot of people, because their life sucks, are gonna take shot at you,” about the Internet trolls. He’s extremely protective about his privacy and keeps it out of social media. Even in the pre-Meta era, Barkley dealt with the invasion of his privacy through the media. His wife too was dragged into unfounded rumors, a fact he mentioned on King Charles while stating why he doesn’t talk about his personal life much.

Without any online activity, Charles Barkley is keeping his and his loved ones’ privacy guarded. It’s perhaps what he wants to discuss with Zuckerberg. “I think number one, the parents deserve some responsibility… Congress deserves some responsibility and the companies deserve some responsibility,” Barkley opined, with his co-host agreeing.

Many have criticized Mark Zuckerberg’s speech in the hearing as performative without increased efforts for child safety. Charles Barkley didn’t comment on the apology. He however, has made his thoughts on the responsibility of companies like Meta abundantly clear.

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