It was obvious sardonicism. Sardonicism is often humorous. The point was to mock those who criticize private companies but not government institutions. An underlying point was that they should be treated equally but aren't.
The limits of text communication, right? A wink or other gesture or knowledge of this person's previous jokes would let a human to easily identify it as a joke or not. Netiquette would be to add "/s" or an emoji to add more information to the channel.