Drake Bell is coming to Josh Peck's defense after fans blasted his former costar for staying mum amid his sexual abuse story ... basically telling everyone to stand down.

The former Nick star hopped online Wednesday to clear the air on where he stands with Josh ... and he confirmed that JP has, in fact, reached out to him after his appearance on 'Quiet on the Set' -- even though just about everybody assumed he hadn't.

Drake -- who opened up about being molested as a teen by former Nickelodeon dialogue coach Brian Peck in the docuseries -- says he noticed the hate comments flooding Josh's social media accounts these past several days ... which he says are unwarranted.

As Drake puts it ... Josh has been supportive in the aftermath of the doc. Josh's reach-out hasn't been made public until now because of the delicate nature of the situation -- so things are clearly going on behind the scenes that not everyone can see.

Drake says that he's been going through an emotional time in processing everything that has happened ... which is why certain things have been kept out of the public eye.

His update comes amid accusations that JP was purposefully ignoring the damning doc about their former network. The comment section of Josh's TikTok account even featured countless fans demanding that he say something in support of DB, instead of making silly uploads.

Of course, Drake and Josh have a rocky relationship of late. The two found themselves publicly beefing after Drake griped about not being invited to Josh's wedding.

The two actors eventually hugged it out at the 2017 VMAs -- but even after that ... it didn't seem they were particularly close.

Still, we're happy to hear that Josh has rallied around Drake right now ... and here's hoping people heed Drake's request to lay off his old bud.