Snowden's comment about Facebook doesn't reflect in any way on whether he has an opinion of Quora, or if he did, whether his opinion about Facebook would have any relevancy to what he thought of Quora. Facebook and Quora have founders in common, but little else.
Facebook is a free service like Quora, but Facebook makes extensive use of advertising in order to generate revenue. Facebook also generates revenue through other means, using its repository of user-contributed data. In contrast, Quora does not display any (overtly) user-targeted advertising. Facebook common equity is publicly traded on listed stock exchanges following its IPO in 2012.
Quora is a closely-held private company, with unknown revenue sources and no transparency policy.
Given widespread knowledge of Facebook's business model, past privacy controversies covered in the press and its relative transparency as a public company, I am surprised that Snowden would expect Facebook to make any sort of "commitment to the user". Facebook users pay nothing to use Facebook. Instead, and this is a cliche by now yet accurate, users ARE Facebook's product! Edward Snowden said:
They need to decide who they work for: the government or the people who use their services.Users are not Facebook's customers. Facebook works for the people and organizations who pay for its services, those who use its services free of charge. Does Facebook work for one or more governments in some capacity?
The answer is probably yes, although payment might be quid pro quo as well as cash. Facebook primarily works for the corporations and businesses that pay for user-targeted advertising on Facebook's platform. Edward Snowden, much like Glenn Greenwald, rarely portrays corporate invasion of privacy as a concern, preferring to focus on government instead.
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