Twitter reached out to TikTok's Chinese owner, ByteDance, to express interest in buying its US assets, according to sources.
The TikTok video sharing platform has been at the center of heated debates in recent weeks and discussions about the acquisition.
Last week Donald Trump ordered companies to stop doing business with TikTok within 45 days due to security concerns.
Tech giant Microsoft is the front-runner for buying TikTok, but now Twitter has emerged as a possible suitor.
But it's unclear whether Twitter can afford to buy TikTok from its Chinese owners and can complete a deal within the 45-day window, according to sources quoted in the Wall Street Journal.
The value of TikTok's US operations is unclear, but estimates put it in the tens of billions of dollars.
Twitter's market capitalization is around $ 29 billion (£ 22 billion), dwarfed by Microsoft's at over $ 1.6 trillion.
But experts believe a possible Twitter deal would face less regulatory scrutiny than Microsoft's.
A Twitter spokesperson declined to comment on a possible deal while TikTok did not immediately respond when contacted by the BBC.
'Shocked'
On Friday, Trump ordered US companies to stop doing business with the Chinese app within 45 days. The Trump administration says the Chinese government has access to user information collected by TikTok, which the company has consistently denied.
In response to the US president's executive order, TikTok threatened legal action against the United States saying he was "shocked" by the move.
The US government also unveiled a ban on the Chinese-owned WeChat messaging app as tensions rise between the two countries.
Mr. Trump said last week that he would support Microsoft's efforts to buy TikTok's US operations if the government got a "substantial portion" of the proceeds.
It set a deadline of September 15 for the deal to be completed or the ban will go on.
Microsoft said it "will move quickly to move discussions forward" for TikTok's operations in the United States, Australia, Canada and New Zealand.
