Not the US. If I open any link to a pin or try to browse a list, I get this: https://i.imgur.com/MQUoa2N.png
Note the lack of an [X] button. This popup is both modal and non-dismissable, so you can't even click on links to other unauth areas. For non-technical users, the literal only options are signing up or closing the tab.
It's not really a secret either. They wrote detailed posts on their tech blog about both the invention of the non-dismissable modal popup [1] and the descision to make the image the user was looking for less obvious compared to recommended content [2].
[1] https://medium.com/@Pinterest_Engineering/lessons-in-growth-... [2] https://medium.com/@Pinterest_Engineering/lessons-in-growth-...
Thank you for the reply. Those blog articles are indeed upsetting. The good news is they do not reflect our current attitude towards signup walls. I expect major changes soon, we've heavily staffed up the internal teams that deal with this so I expect a more elegant unauth experience in the future.
Thank you for having this conversation. Pinterest is a great place on the web to find images - however, so far I avoided it whenever I could because of the glimpses of the underlying philosophy you get. If that mindset is now truly changing, that would be great. In that case, the best of luck to you!