diff --git a/datadog_checks_base/datadog_checks/base/data/agent_requirements.in b/datadog_checks_base/datadog_checks/base/data/agent_requirements.in
index a0701153d86fa..8a42f1c144b4a 100644
--- a/datadog_checks_base/datadog_checks/base/data/agent_requirements.in
+++ b/datadog_checks_base/datadog_checks/base/data/agent_requirements.in
@@ -31,6 +31,7 @@ lxml==4.4.1
 lz4==2.2.1
 meld3==1.0.2
 openstacksdk==0.24.0
+orjson==2.6.1; python_version > '3.0'
 paramiko==2.6.0
 ply==3.10
 prometheus-client==0.3.0
diff --git a/datadog_checks_base/datadog_checks/base/utils/serialization.py b/datadog_checks_base/datadog_checks/base/utils/serialization.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..a11f68ce27718
--- /dev/null
+++ b/datadog_checks_base/datadog_checks/base/utils/serialization.py
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+# (C) Datadog, Inc. 2020-present
+# All rights reserved
+# Licensed under a 3-clause BSD style license (see LICENSE)
+try:
+    import orjson as json
+except ImportError:
+    import json
+
+
+__all__ = ['json']
diff --git a/datadog_checks_base/requirements.in b/datadog_checks_base/requirements.in
index 2f34be511c547..c497b42f7de81 100644
--- a/datadog_checks_base/requirements.in
+++ b/datadog_checks_base/requirements.in
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ ddtrace==0.32.2
 enum34==1.1.6; python_version < '3.0'
 ipaddress==1.0.22; python_version < '3.0'
 kubernetes==8.0.1
+orjson==2.6.1; python_version > '3.0'
 prometheus-client==0.3.0
 protobuf==3.7.0
 pysocks==1.7.0
diff --git a/twistlock/datadog_checks/twistlock/twistlock.py b/twistlock/datadog_checks/twistlock/twistlock.py
index 5c275f1532fa1..9d06f6879489b 100644
--- a/twistlock/datadog_checks/twistlock/twistlock.py
+++ b/twistlock/datadog_checks/twistlock/twistlock.py
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@
 from six import iteritems
 
 from datadog_checks.base import AgentCheck
+from datadog_checks.base.utils.serialization import json
 
 from .config import Config
 from .utils import normalize_api_data_inplace
@@ -322,7 +323,7 @@ def _retrieve_json(self, path):
         try:
             # it's possible to get a null response from the server
             # {} is a bit easier to deal with
-            j = response.json() or {}
+            j = json.loads(response.content) or {}
             if 'err' in j:
                 err_msg = "Error in response: {}".format(j.get("err"))
                 self.log.error(err_msg)
diff --git a/twistlock/requirements.in b/twistlock/requirements.in
index 5901fc4b34766..777e35db79a1a 100644
--- a/twistlock/requirements.in
+++ b/twistlock/requirements.in
@@ -1 +1 @@
-python-dateutil==2.8.0
\ No newline at end of file
+python-dateutil==2.8.0
diff --git a/twistlock/tests/test_twistlock.py b/twistlock/tests/test_twistlock.py
index 8638795f8c918..d20a9da99baee 100644
--- a/twistlock/tests/test_twistlock.py
+++ b/twistlock/tests/test_twistlock.py
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@
 import mock
 import pytest
 
+from datadog_checks.base import ensure_bytes
 from datadog_checks.dev import get_here
 from datadog_checks.twistlock import TwistlockCheck
 
@@ -47,6 +48,10 @@ def __init__(self, j):
         self._json = j
         self.status_code = 200
 
+    @property
+    def content(self):
+        return ensure_bytes(self._json)
+
     def json(self):
         return json.loads(self._json)