It’s not irony at all. There’s nothing inherent to the web that guarantees you free access to its content.
I used to pretend to be Googlebot a lot to bypass paywalls but I think these days there is either IP range filtering or more advanced fingerprinting.
> There’s nothing inherent to the X that guarantees you free access to its content.
Libraries, public transport? Taxes. Love of your parents? Depends on them.
Give me something for which I can say use the phrase and it will be true.
I could do the same with you: this sentence does not make sense:
> Taxes.