Taking out the Mass Air Flow screen

can you take the screen out of the mass air flow to get alittle more power out of the car...or is that a bad thing...dont want to do anything until i know for sure it wont hurt the car!!

screen? What year/model VW do you have?

its a 98 2.0...the MAF has a screen type gizmo and i was wondering if it could be removed for more airflow into the throttle body like in most every other car