Yesterday Howard French summarized for the International Herald Tribune the nasty side of the freedom on the Chinese Internet: mob rule.

This issue is not new. Earlier reports on team buying revealed a less-evil side of mob rule. In contrast, the nasty side gets out of hand more often.

Some of the details of French's report are really disturbing. His comparison with the scenes during the Cultural Revolution is not too far fetched. It explains partly the worries at government level -- not only for the government's survival, but also to keep chaos (always very close in China) within limits.