I'm going to restructure this small essay from my original post b/c I realized after reading peoples thoughts on my other thread that issue that there's much confusion about it, much interest, and it also remains a rather esoteric concept to the general public.
Before I get into any technical details or other aspects I want to put forth an analogy that will help understand what the darkweb is like in simple laymen vernacular:
Think of it this way. In a big city you have bad neighborhoods all over the place with high crime and various illegal activities taking place. You could easily wander into one of these places, break down in your car near one, drive through one, or be accosted by someone. That's the rough equivalent to a regular "back alley" website found on the open web or Clearnet" (i.e. the public internet we all use daily; though it *does* have some seedy areas right out in the open for sure).
Think of the Dark Web more like one of those special clubs you see in the movies, like a place you have to crawl down a sewer hole, or down through some complex maze of doors and alleys until you find a spot where you have to knock, a very ominous looking security person or some access device asks for a code-word. Unless you can supply the code word, along with any other identifying information to prove you are worthy to enter, you are not allowed behind the door. That's how you can think of the Darkweb. That's the darkweb is in very very simple terms. It's not open to the public. You would need to know how to crawl this sewer maze, or through some complex hidden alleys, passages, apartments, etc..., possibly even handing off from one guy to another, being given special directions to the new place, only after giving the correct code-words at each point, in order to finally come to a door that is locked and secured by a gang of thugs with guns. If you finally find that place you still need to be a criminal who knows the proper wording, code word, etc... to get inside. Furthermore, they don't even speak any known dialect. They use a special encrypted form of speaking to each other which sounds like gibberish to anyone who doesn't know the rules. That's the best way to think of the darkweb in super basic laymen terms.
So what really is the "darkweb"? Many people now equate it with Tor (the onion router). That definitely is the most popular tool used for darknets today but it is not the only one. A darknet, or darkweb, is a network that utilizes the public internet infrastructure, the one we use everyday, to create a highly secure, randomized, encrypted, and node-to-node bounce around the world with no logs left in the routers (typically), before finally arriving at the destination site. This essentially makes the traffic on that network totally anonymous. In order to browse these networks, like Tor, you need special software. Tor is one example. It allows you to get on the Tor (Onion) network and, using their Onion based browser, anything you visit while connected to the Tor network is anonymized in the fashion I just mentioned. You can visit any site too not just "darknet" sites while connected to Tor. This is one way to stay completely anonymous when you browse online. Even when you are going to regular open/public websites but where you might not want your traffic to be known.
Here are a list of some of the darkweb networks (other than Tor) and their tools (there are a variety of darknet networks though):
I2P (invisible internet project)
Freenet
Decentralized Network 42 (dn42)
OneSwarm
Zeronet
Another feature is that people who want to run illicit businesses on the darknet do not have to register domain names with ICANN. You would not register the name like you normally do when you purchase a domain through GoDaddy for example. Instead you would use the Tor server as the owner of the site using your web server to create what is known as an ".onion" link. What that does is creates a domain name that can only be found on the Tor network and it uses a randomized 16 digit number (though there is an option to "prettify" the name into a regular .onion domain name link). It can only be accessed using Tor (practically speaking.... not going to get into that). The other darknets also have tools for doing similar things as well.
Customers or users of these darknet sites can use various listing services that give out the onion domains, special browsers with search engines that allow a search feature similar to Google (google and other index bots do not have access to the Tor network or these other darknets). They can also get the links from forums, reddits, etc... The really really bad ones are usually invite only though and you will not find them anywhere online. In fact some are even using software that you won't ever find online. It's done through an extremely tight knit criminal community to keep everything totally anonymous. You will need very special access to reach these sites. These are the places that will be doing really horrible atrocities along with other hard to reach darknet sites. These are also what LEO's are most interested in shutting down with regards to "trafficking". The FOSTA laws were one step toward that b/c many of those markets, as disgusting as they are, were protected by the safe harbors acts. The new federal laws, state laws, etc... allow agencies to go after these awful criminal rings in large force at the source versus just waiting for a tip that so and so exchange or "shipment" (yea you know what I mean - yuck bleh!) is occurring at XYZ port or border and so they go setup a sting. What good does that do against a community like Silk Road, though not disgusting, it was mostly a market for illicit drugs, however when they have 1+ million criminal users?! It does nothing. This is what they were fighting with virtually every community whether it was surface web (open internet), deep web, or the various darknets.
Not all darknets are doing illegal things. That is true. There are some who just want anonymity. However, the overwhelming and VAST majority are doing illegal things on a regular basis. What is the purpose of wanting anonymity if not b/c you are doing something wrong? Yes, there are some valid reasons, potentially afraid that big brother is getting a bit too big, you just don't want people having your info, or know what you look at, etc... However, >99% of the time? Highly illegal and in many cases of a truly filthy disgusting nature that would make you want to vomit.
I'm not going to get into the porn vs prostitution discussion in this thread. I'll re-write that in a new post tomorrow likely.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
If you are not really technically savvy I would highly advise that you do not play around with the darkweb or any of the various darknets. Most any of those places are on watch lists from the FBI cybercrime division to DOD to Homeland to NSA and so on.
If you don't know what you are doing then you could get into big trouble. For example, there are ways to inadvertently access a "darkweb" site without connecting to Tor properly and you will be completely in the open without one iota of encryption or Tor node randomizing.
I'm not even going to hint at how you do it b/c if I do I'm just opening up the possibility that someone will get in trouble. Please listen to me here.
Another example? When I said you need special browsers? Yes, typically. However, all internet traffic is on port 80 for web servers (HTTP) and port 443 for secure web servers (HTTPS). Chrome, FF, Safari, or *any* browser can do that too. That's what a web browser does. It's just that Tor and those other darknet software services or networks require another special port to forward to. Chrome and the others don't know how to do that natively. The problem is you could muck it up where they can do it, and, again, there are way to access onion links, as well as other darknets, (i.e. "darkweb" links) without utilizing that specific networks encryption protocols. My point? There are ways to get there without using one of those special browsers and without any encryption or router spoofing/masqerading if you are not careful. You could expose yourself and be completely in the open without one ounce of encryption or protection.
Also, don't think installing or running a virtual machine or live Linux distro or simply reformatting your hard-drive after the fact or any other "clever" little idea will work. Uh uh. All communication over the web happens via packet switched IP datagrams. You could throw your computer/tablet in the fire. It still wouldn't change that your ISP's router log show that the IP address assigned to your homes router at XYZ time was sending data packets to/from "so and so site on the darkweb". Unless you know how to bulletproof your tracks and you are highly technical then don't play around with it. Yes, journalists use it from time to time, investigators, and so on. They are either very skilled themselves, have taken lots of time to study up and understand all the ramifications, OR more likely they have an IT team on standby that sets up environments just for those purposes. Again, fair warning. Don't mess with it. There is highly illegal as well as extremely disturbing content and exchanges taking place on the various darknets around the world.
One final note regarding the above paragraph:
Please understand the above is very important. Simply googling things is not the same as understanding them. Integration of knowledge and facts, true understanding, is very different than just looking something up or acquiring a "fact". Yes, we can all google. That does not mean you understand it. For example, anyone can google that the 1NF of database normalization is that each field is atomic in nature. Okay great. What is normalization? What does "each field needs to be atomic" mean? What is a field? What is 1NF? Oh it's a normal form? Ok, what are normal forms?
Google is an amazing wonderful tool. My point though is that it can also be a double edged sword for the uninitiated. Googling alone is a dangerous thing if you don't have enough background information to support your argument or whatever activity you are attempting to engage in. Unless you are ready to endeavor to learn all about it or you have a wealth of knowledge on a vast array of topics. Researching and doing it well is a learned skill. Do not make the mistake of thinking Google is your researcher (you are). Google is more like your research "assistant". You are the researcher. Yes, the more we know the more we can know even faster, at a geometric pace, which is why you should always strive to learn new things constantly, BUT do not make the mistake of thinking that google is a substitution for true integration of facts, findings, and knowledge or understanding of a given topic area. It absolutely and most profoundly is NOT remotely close. So.... again, tread carefully.
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Originally Posted by Mokoa
Troll inhospitable & I have an ever growing troll ignore list!!! 
I’m your Huckleberry and this hobby is just my game. Ladies, just say when!! 
#Pussy Posse founding member
Yea, I gotcha. I don't necessarily disagree nor do I really have an issue with it being here. More or less I was pointing it out b/c of what happened initially (original thread that got deleted). I couldn't arrange it the same way and without the news story I just couldn't make my point the same way either. I also had to do it quickly b/c I wanted to get something posted as I'd been promising I would. 
fear is whack
