Oops: Microsoft asked Google to censor Microsoft.com

Oops. In its bid to combat pirated content, Microsoft mistakenly asked Google to remove several search results, including some links to its own website Microsoft.com.

The incident involved a recent Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown request sent by LeakID on behalf of Microsoft, TorrentFreak.com reported.

"Instead of listing URLs of infringing material, Microsoft asked Google to remove links to their own websites, as can be seen below. The six links point to Microsoft’s store, support pages, and product descriptions. A pretty embarrassing mistake to say the least," it said.

But Microsoft could count itself lucky: Google detected the error and did not remove the pages from its search results.

TorrentFreak.com said it is hard to say how many similar incidents have occurred.

Yet, it said there have been cases where legitimate content had been removed via takedown requests.

It cited a recent request by HBO to Google to remove a legal copy of the open source video player VLC.

"The link in question was clearly submitted in error, but at the time of writing it's still absent from Google’s search result," it said.

"Of course Google can't really be blamed for responding to takedown requests because they are required to do so by law. Considering the millions of notices submitted to them every week, Google does a pretty good job at filtering out the most obvious mistakes," it added. — VC, GMA News