It's supposed to mean that wondering something akin to "it's just math, how can it be illegal" doesn't mean much in an era when math are not just some abstract theory or things used to measure our plots of land, but are at the core of very important technologies with great applications and huge implications.

Not to mention that with digitization, every file is "just a number" anyway. Top secret document leaked? Naked photos of an ex posted for all to see? "Hey, I just shared a binary number on the internet" doesn't really hold water.

It might be politically abhorrent to persecute people for such things, but absurd it is not.