for the company. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez opposed the $1.5 billion in tax subsidies that had been given to Amazon as part of the deal. She stated that restoring the subway system would be a better use for the money, despite rebuttals from Andrew Cuomo and others that New York would benefit economically. Shortly afterward, Politico reported that 1,500 affordable homes had previously been slated for the land being occupied by Amazon's new office. The request by Amazon executives for a helipad at each location proved especially controversial with multiple New York City Council members decrying the proposal as frivolous. Governments CIA and Washington Post conflict of interest In 2013, Amazon secured a contract with the CIA, which has been described as a potential conflict of interest involving the Bezos-owned The Washington Post and his newspaper's coverage of the CIA. This was later followed by a bid for a contract with the Department of Defense. Although critics initially considered the government's preference for Amazon to be a foregone conclusion, the contract was ultimately signed with Microsoft. Government-ordered censorship Amazon stated of being “committed to diversity, equity and inclusion”, but it was seen obliging to the censorship demands of several countries. In 2021, the Chinese website of Amazon complied to an order of the Chinese government, and removed the customer reviews and ratings for a book written on Chinese Communist Party general secretary Xi Jinping’s speeches and writings. Besides, the comments section was also disabled. In 2022, the company obliged to the UAE government’s demand and restricted the LGBTQ products on its Emirati website. Documents revealed that under the threat of unknown penalties, Amazon removed searches on over 150 keywords related to LGBTQ products. Moreover, a number of book titles were also blocked, including My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness by Nagata Kabi, Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe, and Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay. Amazon said they were restricted to “comply with the local laws and regulations of the countries in which we operate”. Israeli military contract Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion deal in which the technology companies Amazon and Google will provide Israel and its military with artificial intelligence, machine learning, and other cloud computing services, including building local cloud sites that will "keep information within Israel's borders under strict security guidelines." The contract has drawn rebuke and condemnation from the companies' shareholders as well as their employees, over concerns