The City of Frisco and Mayor Jeff Cheney announced that they have removed a coronavirus-related feature on the myFRISCO app after they quickly received negative feedback from residents.

The feature, announced this week, allowed residents to report nonessential businesses for operating despite the state’s order to close, as well as individuals who violate social-distancing guidelines.

In response to the city’s tweet about the app’s reporting abilities, one Twitter user described it as the “'Big Brother’ neighbor snitching app,” while another called city officials “pinko commies."

Brittany Hughes, a writer for the Media Research Center — a media watchdog organization — published a blog post about the reporting feature.

“The city of Frisco, Texas has seen Laredo’s facemask mandate and raised it one neighborhood snitch app,” Hughes wrote.

She said the purpose was to allow community members to “rat out their neighbors” for not practicing social distancing guidelines.

The blog, which included the original tweet from Cheney and quotes from a video that he published, ignited several of the responses on Twitter and other social media platforms.

Frisco and Cheney quickly responded to the backlash, apologizing for the misunderstanding. The purpose of the app was to help in reducing the volume of emails that the city’s emergency operations team was receiving, Cheney posted on Facebook.

“While we had the best of intentions to ease communication with our residents the added functionality for COVID-19 has not had the response we had hoped for and become more of a distraction than helpful,” Cheney wrote.

“However, I understand the criticism, which I find to be fair, and it has always been my goal for people to be in this together and not against one another,” Cheney added.

Several people responded to Cheney’s apologetic post, commending him and the city for the quick response and thanking him for being a “resilient boss,” keeping a “calm perspective” and remaining transparent during this “unprecedented time.”

Cheney said he will continue to accept feedback, questions or concerns through his personal email regarding the application.