diff --git a/changelogs/fragments/fetch_url-remove-auto-disable-decompress.yml b/changelogs/fragments/fetch_url-remove-auto-disable-decompress.yml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..9588483317d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelogs/fragments/fetch_url-remove-auto-disable-decompress.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+removed_features:
+  - "``fetch_url`` - remove auto disabling ``decompress`` when gzip is not available"
diff --git a/lib/ansible/module_utils/urls.py b/lib/ansible/module_utils/urls.py
index 077b6afd860..051ffebec2e 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/module_utils/urls.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/module_utils/urls.py
@@ -1865,12 +1865,8 @@ def fetch_url(module, url, data=None, headers=None, method=None,
     if not HAS_URLPARSE:
         module.fail_json(msg='urlparse is not installed')
 
-    if not HAS_GZIP and decompress is True:
-        decompress = False
-        module.deprecate(
-            '%s. "decompress" has been automatically disabled to prevent a failure' % GzipDecodedReader.missing_gzip_error(),
-            version='2.16'
-        )
+    if not HAS_GZIP:
+        module.fail_json(msg=GzipDecodedReader.missing_gzip_error())
 
     # ensure we use proper tempdir
     old_tempdir = tempfile.tempdir
diff --git a/test/sanity/ignore.txt b/test/sanity/ignore.txt
index b580357acbb..908aa5f53cf 100644
--- a/test/sanity/ignore.txt
+++ b/test/sanity/ignore.txt
@@ -239,7 +239,6 @@ test/units/utils/collection_loader/fixtures/collections_masked/ansible_collectio
 test/units/utils/collection_loader/fixtures/collections_masked/ansible_collections/testns/testcoll/__init__.py empty-init  # testing that collections don't need inits
 test/units/utils/collection_loader/test_collection_loader.py pylint:undefined-variable  # magic runtime local var splatting
 lib/ansible/executor/play_iterator.py pylint:ansible-deprecated-version
-lib/ansible/module_utils/urls.py pylint:ansible-deprecated-version
 lib/ansible/playbook/helpers.py pylint:ansible-deprecated-version
 lib/ansible/playbook/included_file.py pylint:ansible-deprecated-version
 lib/ansible/plugins/action/__init__.py pylint:ansible-deprecated-version