The Controversial Termination of Kiwix by Hetzner: Understanding the Implications

Kiwix, an information archival service, faced a drastic issue when their servers were terminated by Hetzner without prior warning. The incident occurred at midnight on a Sunday and left Kiwix unable to access their main storage backend, rendering their library and files inaccessible for users. Kiwix later discovered that Hetzner had canceled their account, claiming there was a notice sent via email, but Kiwix did not receive it, prompting a frustrating dialogue with Hetzner’s support team.

Amid the chaos, all of Kiwix’s servers had already been wiped, making it impossible to retrieve any of the lost data. Thankfully, Kiwix had mirrors that remained unaffected, and they were able to secure a new server with Scaleway to start re-importing their data, a process that took approximately 48 hours for about 8TB of data to come back online.

In the aftermath, Hetzner addressed the situation on LowEndTalk, stating that a termination notice had indeed been sent to Kiwix, which was missed by them. They reiterated that account terminations occur only in cases of policy violations or abuse, and emphasized their commitment to reviewing cases manually rather than through automated processes.

Kiwix shared the termination letter from Hetzner, which specified the cancellation was in line with their terms and conditions, and confirmed that it was final and unappealable.

The CEO of Hetzner later acknowledged the complicating factors that led to the termination, including the missed communication and unfortunate timing surrounding the deletion of the servers. He expressed regret for the incident and the inconvenience it caused, affirming that they would work on improving their internal processes to avoid similar situations in the future.

This incident raised various concerns within the community, with many users highlighting the challenges faced when dealing with customer support at Hetzner, reflecting on their growing size and occasional difficulties in the resolution process.