In today’s Quick Hits, the Pope gives social media technology his blessing (with an important catch), Politico details the possible privacy legislation coming from Congress in 2011, and we look at some research about the “most blocked” websites.

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Pope Approves of Social Media Technology

In a recent message to Catholics around the world, Pope Benedict XVI gave his blessing to social media, saying, “I would like then to invite Christians, confidently and with an informed and responsible creativity, to join the network of relationships which the digital era has made possible.” However, Pope Benedict also made sure to clarify that digital relationships are not meant to replace real human interactions.

Facebook is the “Most Blocked” Website

In its annual report. Open DNS shared that the “most blocked” website of 2010 was Facebook, which was blacklisted by 14 percent of companies. The popular social networking website can be a boon for branding and communications, but it can also hurt productivity among employees. In another interesting finding, the Open DNS report repealed that PayPal was spoofed the most often by phishers (46 percent of identified phishing sites), with Facebook coming in at a distant second (5 percent of identified phishing sites).

Palestinian Man Arrested Over Falsely Tagged Facebook Photo

Palestinian journalist Mamdouh Hamamreh found himself in handcuffs recently when, according to an Associated Press report, he “was falsely labeled in an image mocking Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas by superimposing his likeness into a picture of a well-known Syrian soap opera villain.” According to AllFacebook’s write-up of the incident, “Hamamreh explained that he was detained by police authorities just a few hours after being tagged in said photo. Again, and according to him, he hadn’t taken the picture or uploaded it, and his face wasn’t in it. He didn’t even tag himself. After being held up in a Palestinian lock-up for 50 days, he was released in November and faces trial next month.”

Mozilla Considering Do Not Track Feature

Responding to growing concern over Internet tracking, Mozilla is contemplating adding a feature to Firefox 4 that would protect users from being tracked by targeted Internet ads. A month and a half ago, Microsoft announced that it would include a Do Not Track feature in its upcoming Internet Explorer 9 browser.

Online Privacy Gets Renewed Interest on Capitol Hill

In an article for Politico, Tony Romm writes that online privacy will be one of the most important legislative items on the agenda for Congress in 2011. Romm details some of the major players in the Internet privacy debate, and goes into detail on Senator John Kerry’s likely upcoming privacy legislation.