The Wall Street Journal reports that the social network Twitter has had preliminary conversations about merging with the video-sharing app TikTok.

According to the report, Twitter approached TikTok's parent company, the Chinese company ByteDance, with an offer to purchase TikTok's US operations.

The offer follows US President Donald Trump's demand that TikTok find a buyer by September 15 or be shut down in the US.

Over the weekend, Trump signed an executive order banning the use of the TikTok app which will take effect after 45 days. The order would ban US companies from doing business with ByteDance.

A TikTok spokesman stated in response to the order that the app is committed to the privacy of its 100 million users in the United States

Microsoft is also in talks to purchase TikTok.