> Is author serious with this statement?

Whether or not this author is serious, there are many people who are deadly serious about this sort of thing. It's one of the main reasons that, for example, marijuana has been kept illegal despite the overwhelming evidence that it is less dangerous than either alcohol or cigarettes: legalizing pot is bad for established business interests. It's the reason that credit card transactions cost 2-3% when the technology to process payments for an order of magnitude less has existed for years. It's the reason "low fat" became a thing when sugar is actually much worse. It's reason you can't buy an open-source mobile phone. I could go on and on.