That's the sense I got. Try to directly suppress something, you get the Streisand effect. Try to make something taboo, it might just suppress itself.

The complexity of the plot and the number of people involved makes it a little hard to believe, but the overall concept makes sense. If Ben runs with the original story, status quo, no big deal. If Ben takes the bait, success.

Of course, there's always twist twist: It was a completely reliable plot because Ben is actually working for ONI.