No, the model in the photograph has not entered the Guinness Book of World Records for having the Darkest Skin Tone on Earth

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At a time when racism and issues relating to skin colour are being debated upon and discussed in societies across the world, a post with the photo of a Dark Skinned Model is getting viral on Facebook in Assam. The post bears a caption saying: “Sudanese model, Nyakim, enters Guinness book of records for having the darkest skin tone on Earth”.

The photo was first posted on a profile with the name Brenda Numesubo on April 26, 2020 with the above mentioned caption and has since been shared a number of times by Facebook users across Assam.  One such profile is of Ashiqur Rohman who shared it on May 21, 2020 and it has been shared further by other users from his post.

Is the claim true? Does the model really hold such a record? Let’s find out.

Fact Check Methodology:

We ran a keyword search on Google and found a few articles and the featured model’s Wikipedia page. From there we came to know that her name is Nyakim Gatwech, an American of South Sudanese descent. Her Wikipedia page does not have any mention of any Guinness Record.

Following this we looked up the Guinness World Records official website and checked to see if there is a category on Dark Skin in its human body segment. But we failed to find any such section on skin tone.

After that we checked social media platforms to see if there was any post or announcement about such a category recently. We came across a retweet, dated 28 April, 2020, with a comment “Fake news alert Guinness World Records does not monitor records for skin tone” on Guinness World Records official Twitter handle. They had retweeted one such claim which has since been deleted. 

Posted right below this was a screenshot of a conversation of a twitter user with the model from which it is clear that she too is unaware of any such recognition given to her.

Conclusion: It is clear from the above evidences that the claim: “Sudanese model, Nyakim, enters Guinness book of records for having the darkest skin tone on Earth”, is False.