Strange Tor Activity - Possible Reasons Noted by UK Professor

[GhostShip]

An Interesting article 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-35614335

A security expert has noticed an unprecedented spike in the number of hidden addresses on the Tor network.
Prof Alan Woodward at the University of Surrey spotted an increase of more than 25,000 .onion "dark web" services. Prof Woodward said he was not sure how best to explain the sudden boom.
One possibility, he said, might be a sudden swell in the popularity of Ricochet, an app that uses Tor to allow anonymous instant messaging between users.