If there were strong privacy laws defining how and when data could be collected and accessed then in theory I'm happy for the right people to have access to investigate criminal acts. Under a warrant that a judge has reviewed.

But currently it seems to be a free-for-all with tech companies being the ones in control of most of the data.

Gates didn't suggest that the messages be sent unencrypted through government-controlled message routers either. Presumably, he is promoting systems that work like MS Teams or Slack.

Gates attacked encryption. Nothing beneficial (to the public) follows that.

Where did he do that? Slack and Microsoft Teams also use encryption, and he wasn't opposed to the method they use it.

Right here. "And when you have [posts] encrypted, there is no way to know what it is. I personally believe government should not allow those types of lies or fraud or child pornography [to be hidden with encryption like WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger]."

Unless you're alleging the stuff in the brackets isn't attributable to Gates and doesn't reflect his position on encryption.