The Internet may have been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize, but it is also being increasingly used as a tool for hate. NY1's Technology reporter Adam Balkin filed the following report.

Depending on whose hands harness its power, the Internet can be used for good or harm. On the same day the world has learned the Internet is nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize, the Simon Wiesenthal Center has released its 12th annual Digital Terror and Hate Report, which is designed to help law enforcement keep track of online hate.

"The last two years, we've seen an increase of almost 40 percent, says Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center. "We're looking at over 11,500 problematic websites -- Facebook, YouTube, etc. In 1995, the day of the Oklahoma City bombing, there was one."

A troubling part of the report describes how people who would previously sit home alone and stew in their hatred can now turn to social networking sites for motivation and support. Online instructions for building homemade bombs and weapons can also lead people to turn frustrations into real-life terror attacks.

"The Internet now plays a pivotal role in hooking up what's now called the 'lone wolf,' someone who's highly motivated and is encouraged not to join an organized group necessarily but to sort of carry out these acts," says Cooper. "The power of the social networking, which is viral, has been co-opted in many cases by people who mean to do us harm and others who mean to recruit our children into a world of hate."

Those associated with the study say being reactive, by finding hate sites online and then notifying proper authorities, is an important solution. However, web users should also take preventative action and educate people, particularly youngsters, about how to recognize hateful Internet material.

"With the center, I have authored a bill called the 'Simon Wiesenthal Holocaust Education Bill,' which would keep lesson plans and ways to teach tolerance in the United States Education Department and at the Holocaust Museum," says Manhattan-Queens Representative Carolyn Maloney.

If you come across troubling websites, alert the Simon Wiesenthal Center by sending the links to iReport@wiesenthal.com.