Based on some quick googling, it seems like this anti-feature (login wall for threads) was tested pre-Musk on some users, but it was switched on globally by Musk.

For example here’s a mention from 2021 where some people report getting the login wall and others don’t:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28267774

It's probably the main reason the organisations I work with are considering an alternative like Bluesky or Mastodon - the ability to have a widget consistently displays your own posts on yoiur website is very handy.

> If I recall correctly it was done pre-Musk.

It was sporadically AB tested, IIRC, for _years_, but it was certainly _rare_.

One gets the impression that the first thing Musk did on arrival was demand that every feature flag Twitter had for experimental changes be turned full on; a lot of early Musk changes were things that Twitter had flirted with in the past.

I thought it was just market capture. It was the most popular website in the world, so if you needed to see sports news, or event updates from celebrities, or your government representatives make an announcement (ugh, I still hate that): well, you need a profile for us to monetize.