My guess is some of the tweets were plants by the pageant itself to drum up media buzz. When was the last time Miss America was in the news? A couple decades ago (probably because TV options were so limited), it used to draw large audiences. Part of me thinks this is a cynical ploy to get people taking. (I'm mostly joking, but I wouldn't be surprised if I turned out to be right either.)
Joke appreciated, though I do think that the pageant backed the cherrypicking of relevant tweets.
Perhaps, but I actually dug in to some of them and they were real people. One was a highschool kid that acted all tough and defiant at first but then started to half apologize, "it was just a joke" and eventually seemed genuinely afraid for himself. The mob had made him the most hated twitterer of the moment. I could see the pageant sending out emails to "go to her defense" to media outlets, asking them to pick up the story etc. Fanning the flames of outrage to their advantage.