Gates to Google and Facebook: malaria is a priority over the internet

It isn’t often that you see Microsoft co-founder and former CEO Bill Gates go on the offensive against companies that are trying to connect the world through the internet, but that’s exactly what he did yesterday. When asked about Mark Zuckerberg’s Internet.org project and Google’s Project Loon, both having the stated goal of bringing internet connectivity to underdeveloped countries, the billionaire said that ending malaria was a much greater priority.

When Bill Gates co-founded Microsoft nearly 40 years ago, he had the idea to put a computer on every desk, and in the ’90s he evangelized the concept of “information at your fingertips.” Since he stepped down as CEO of Microsoft in 2008, he has turned his full attention to saving lives and eliminating poverty through the work and financial donations of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.