Although freedom of speech can be inhibited by intolerant people, it can only be destroyed by brute force, particularly government force. If fundamentalists demand that Playboy magazines be removed from store shelves, that is not censorship. Others are free to demand just as forcefully that Playboy be kept on shelves. And merchants can reject the fundamentalists demands. But when government sends in police to close down bookstores, arrest musicians, artists, and photographers, burn videotapes, or shut down computer networks, that is censorship.
Censorship is the handmaiden of a police state.
Censorship is the use of force to control what you can say, read, or see. In Nazi Germany, the works of Jewish writers were seized and burned by storm troopers. Resisters were beaten and shot. Merely criticizing the government could mean being sent to a concentration camp. In the Soviet Union and Communist China, the government burned bibles and churches, as well as unapproved books and art.