TWITTER will work with Oxford University experts to help measure and improve health of conversation on the platform.

Two social psychology professors from the university will work with a counterpart from the University of Amsterdam, to study how people use Twitter and what impact that has on the quality of debate.

Oxford professor Miles Hewstone, who is one of the researchers, said: "We're very excited about the opportunity to work with Twitter on investigating important social challenges of a digitally connected world.

"Evidence from social psychology has shown how communication between people from different backgrounds is one of the best ways to decrease prejudice and discrimination.

"We are aiming to investigate how this can be used to measure the health of conversations on Twitter, and whether the effects of positive online interaction carry across to the offline world."

Twitter announced earlier this year it would review proposals from outside experts into how to measure and improve the health of conversation on the site, after criticism over misinformation and offensive content.

Writing in a blog post about the academic partnerships, the social media site said: "Ensuring we have thoughtful, comprehensive metrics to measure the health of public conversation is crucial to guiding our work and making progress."

It said the task ahead was 'ambitious' but it looked forward to working with the two universities.

Social psychology expert Prof Hewstone will be helped by fellow Oxford academic John Gallacher, and Dr Marc Heerdink from the University of Amsterdam.