Dark web refers to a largely secret and anonymous part of the internet where, in two words, anything goes. Almost all of this dark web is accessed via Tor, a freely available anonymising service that lets you browse without being easily tracked. Researchers at Kings College London recently made an effort to measure how much of the dark web was being used for illegal services. Professor Alan Woodward recently wrote that the number of dark websites inside the Tor network suddenly shot up by about 50%, from around 40,000 to just over 60,000. Woodward’s preferred explanation is that there has been a sudden and explosive growth in the use of a recently-released, Tor-based anonymous messaging service.”]
Source: https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2016/02/24/did-the-dark-web-just-get-a-whole-lot-bigger/